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6346727 
Journal Article 
The Acid-Cleaning Method of Labwares for Analysis of Ultra Low Concentration Heavy Metals in Antarctic and Arctic Snow and Ice Samples 
Liu, YP; Hou, SG; Li, YF; Li, Z; Wang, YT 
2008 
30 
6 
1007-1012 
All acid-cleaning was performed inside a class 1000 clean room and class 100 laminar flow clean benches. The ultrapure water was produced by Millipore RO (Reverse Osmosis) water purification system and Milli-Q water purification system. The three purity grades of the nitric acid are the Merck reagent grade HNO sub(3), the Fisher TraceMetal grade HNO sub(3) and the purest Fisher Optima grade HNO sub(3). The various bottles, containers and other labwares mainly ordered from Nalgene, Nalge Company, which are in contact with the samples, are made of low density polyethylene and FEP or PFA Teflon material. The acid-cleaning procedure of all the bottles and containers mainly followed a successive four times cleaning through immersion in increasing purity at different concentration nitric acid bathes during four weeks. Except the first time acid-cleaning was performed at room temperature, the last three acid-cleanings were heated on hotplates with a temperature of 45 C of acid solutions. In order to verify the validity of acid-cleaning method, the cleaned sample bottles were performed blank determination using Finni-gan MAT Element double focusing inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results show that all measured heavy metals were below the limits of detection (LOD). Although the acid-cleaning method is developed mainly for the reliable measurement of the ultra low concentration heavy meals in Antarctic and Arctic snow and ice samples, it also can be used for ultra low concentration heavy metals in other environmental samples. 
Sea ice; Reverse osmosis; Laminar flow; Heavy metals; Nitric acids; Water purification; Snow and ice; Spectrometry; Environmental monitoring; Containers; glaciology; Temperature; Nitric acid; Polar environments; Reagents; Water Treatment; Antarctic; Marine/