The invention consists of a method and apparatus for the delivery at low pressure (equal to or less than 10-7 Torr) of monoatomic fluorine for reaction with surfaces in an ultra-clean environment. Thanks to the low pressure values involved in the proposed method, the risks associated with the use of fluorine are reduced to a minimum. The chemical reaction on the surfaces occurs with monoatomic fluorine rather than with molecular fluorine: therefore, since it is not necessary to break the molecular bond of the fluorine, the reactive power of the gas increases significantly. The pressure necessary to obtain thermodynamic equilibrium between a given substance and the gas is reduced by several orders of magnitude.
The synthesis of some compounds and coatings requires exposing the surfaces to fluorine in a very clean environment. Commercial fluorine is supplied as a diatomic gas and is highly toxic. Our method uses monoatomic fluorine and therefore allows the same reaction to occur at much lower pressures than those required with diatomic fluorine. Furthermore, the proposed method allows the administration of fluorine in the presence of a negligible amount of contaminants. In tests performed to implement the invention the only gas detected other than fluorine was hydrogen, present at a partial pressure four times lower than that of monoatomic fluorine ( https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.04858 ). The apparatus consists of a high-vacuum metal chamber with active internal walls. The active walls are designed to catalyze the transformation from molecular fluorine to monoatomic fluorine and to store the fluorine for later use.
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