Microwave Vessel Age

With the continued use of conventional microwave vessels, the vessel and sub components quality, will progressively degrade with aggressive acid attack and need to be replaced. TFM-PTFE has demonstrated a superior resistance to strong acid attack allowing aging experiments of up to 7 years to be conducted on microwave digestion vessels made of such material. An experiment was conducted to measure if there was any 'weep' coming from the vessel surface over such a period. The experiment involved repeated microwave digestion of a certified material, in this case, poplar leaves. 6 X 6year old digestion vessels and 10 new vessels were used in each microwave digestion.The microwave digestion of the sample was followed by a rinse with double distilled water and then the vessel was refilled with distilled water as a blank sample. The same microwave digestion method was used and upon completion the blank sample was collected and analysed. The TFM-PTFE microwave digestion vessel was filled again with distilled water and the same microwave digestion method was implimented. The 2nd blank was collected and analysed following the initial CRM digestion. 21 elements were tested in the sets of blanks. Referring to the table,blank 1 and blank 2(6yr old microwave digestion vessel) results show negligble readings for all 21 elements when compared to the same blank values in the new vessels.