[labnetwork] He, Ar, O2 prices?

[Paolini, Steven]

Aimee,
  We have experienced the same price increases, and probably more. Aside from the higher price, availability has reached a critically short level. High purity Helium is basically unavailable in the Northeast.
We have had to change a PECVD process which used silane diluted with High purity Helium to 100% Silane. If you find a supplier that has decent pricing and good inventory, I'm sure the folks on this network will appreciate it.
Equipment Dood

Steve Paolini
Principal Equipment Engineer
Harvard University Center for Nanoscale Systems
11 Oxford St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
617- 496- 9816
spaolini at cns.fas.harvard.edu
www.cns.fas.harvard.edu

From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> On Behalf Of Price, Aimee
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2023 12:55 PM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: [labnetwork] He, Ar, O2 prices?

Hi All,
Happy New Year to the network.

At Ohio State, we are seeing major price increases for our "6.0" gases year over year (2021 to 2022) and it's gone up again since December.  We typically purchase from Matheson but also do some business with Praxair (our bulk LN2 is from Praxair so we have some buying power as we buy it by the semi tanker load).

The changes are as follows:
Ar increased 2x
O2 increased 2x
He increased 4.5x

Does anyone have a solution for these?  We understand that everything is going up, but these are very big changes.  I know that some labs have He reclaim systems but we don't have nearly enough use to justify that type of installation.

Thanks,
Aimee

Manager, Nanofabrication
The Ohio State University
Nanotech West Lab
Institute for Materials Research
1381 Kinnear Road
Suite 100
Columbus, OH 43212
614-292-2753
Price.798 at osu.edu<mailto:Price.798 at osu.edu>
Nanotech.osu.edu

Pronouns: she/her/hers

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