Dissolving polyacrylamide ? - (Jan/14/2008 )
Hi,
What do you think is the most efficient compound to dissolve polyacrylamide gel very very dried on a chrome/zinc surface ?
I tried with EtOH and acétone. None worked.
Have an idea ?
thx
Nearly impossible. You may need strong acid with oxidant to breakdown the gel. There are reducible cross-linkers you can use (to replace bis) to make it degradable in the presence of beta-mecaptoethanol.
Have you tried to wet it with water and wait till it swells and becomes soft?
Interesting. Do you have a name ?
Yep, I tried that too !
I forgot to say the polyacrylamide is enlighten for 5 mins with 180 nm UV rays (very strong).
Your only hope is a strong oxidizer such as hot concentrated sulfuric acid, or chromic acid, or pirhana (mixture of conc. sulfuric and 30% hydrogen peroxide). Not for the faint of heart. How badly do you want this piece of chrome?
This piece of chrome is a photomask costing approx. 300 euros, soooo....
I'll see with my labmates if it's ok to put those wild things onto the mask !
Thanks for your responses !
like k.b. says, soak it until the gel swells then scrape it off (it won't float off). it should come off completely.
if you want to digest it, you can use h2o2 and perchloric acid at elevated temperature. i don't know if this will attack chrome or zinc. scraping may be the safest way.
If it is a photomask, the workers in the semiconductor world will be familiar with pirhana, which is widely used to clean silicon wafers. Let them do it.
Finally, we managed to get rid of the burnt polyacrylamide with HF acid, 5% for 15 min.
It attacked a bit the glass but not much.