Pre-Stabilization of Zr Getters for 5-Nine Purity Nitrogen Gas Purification

We confirm whether Zr powders can restrain a rapid nitrification reaction and offer a stable oxidation reaction according to temperatures in nitrogen gas purification. A pellet-type, porous Zr getter is prepared (diameter: 10 and thickness: 3 mm) using Zr powder with an average particle size of 45 μm. While maintaining the whole system, the Zr getter reaction is confirmed with an increase in temperature from 150 to 550 oC at increments of 100 oC under 99.999 % purity nitrogen atmosphere comprising of 10 ppm of impurity. Surface color, pore size, stabilized layer, and phase change are confirmed with optical microscopy, SEM-EDS, Micro-Raman, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) according to the Zr getter temperature. The surface color of the Zr getter changes from metallic silver to dark gray as temperature increases. In the EDS results, the nitrogen component is not observed, and oxygen content increases from each surface at elevated temperatures. The Raman and XRD results show the oxidation layer as a result of 350 oC annealing. Therefore, the Zr getter can be applied as a nitrogen getter under 5-nine purity nitrogen atmosphere after appropriate oxidized pre-stabilization process to prevent rapid nitrification reaction.