[labnetwork] HF storage

[Michael Yakimov]

I wonder if your bottles come from the same supplier, look the same, and have chemical name buried into huge DANGER, HAZARD, WARNING symbols. I definitely had some bottles (not pointing fingers, but I have some specific companies in mind) where finding chemical name required literally 2-3 minutes of reading. Can you share bottle pictures to see if that is the issue?

If I had a penny every time I was told "check the bottle to make sure..." - so that is what I would emphasize.
Instantly readable labeling is a must. Low cost ideas":  Secondary "HF" or "HCl" stickers on the bottle in large letters, maybe in different colors. Highlighting chemical name on the label, possibly with different color markers. Switching one of chemicals to a different brand so bottle has different shape and label style...

Mike






_______________________________________________

Michael Yakimov

Research scientist

College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering

SUNY Polytechnic Institute



253 Fuller rd.

Albany NY 12203



Phone: 518-437-8609 lab

e-mail: yakimom at sunypoly.edu



________________________________
From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> on behalf of Savitha P <savithap at iisc.ac.in>
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 7:19 AM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: [labnetwork] HF storage

Hi!

We recently had a couple of occasions where users had mistakenly used Hydrofluoric acid in place of Hydrochloric acid during RCA cleaning. To avoid this, one of the suggestions we have received from our OLSEH is to store HF in a different coloured bottle (currently all acids are stored in white translucent polypropylene bottles which are properly labelled). Accordingly, we had considered storing HF in opaque, brown colour HDPE bottles. However, that was not deemed acceptable by a section of users saying bottles should be translucent so that acid level inside can be judged.

Could you please let me know how small quantities of HF are stored in your respective fabs. Is there any regulation governing storage of HF, so that we could implement the same.

Thanks and regards,
Savitha


Dr. Savitha P
Chief Operating Officer
National Nanofabrication Centre
Centre for Nanoscience and Engineering
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore - 560012
India.
Ph. +91 80 2293 3319
www.cense.iisc.ac.in
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