Testing For Aluminium Oxide

[kat.rawlings]

Hiya everyone,

I was just wondering if anybody knows how I can test for the presence of aluminium oxide? We have been shot blasting plastic with an aluminium oxide abrasive, so bits of this abrasive will be left on the surface of the plastic. We believe that we can remove this aluminium oxide using acetic acid (white vinegar). However, it is essential that there is no aluminium oxide left on the surface of the plastic. We therefore need some way to test for this.

Thanks

Kat

[modest]

Hi, Kat.

 

To test for aluminum oxide I'd think to use aluminon, but if the oxide is embedded in plastic and you are testing whether or not it has been removed then I don't know how, really, you could use that method effectively.

 

I think your best bet might be to use a black light or a UV light. The oxide should fluoresce (glow a blue color) when you shine a UV or black light on it in a dark room. I just shined a UV light on a piece of metal coated with aluminum oxide and it fluoresced quite a bit. If you're lucky then you're working with plastic that doesn't show well under UV light. That way all you should have to do is use a black light lamp or a UV lamp and see if you have speckles that glow in the plastic under the lamp.

 

~modest

[kat.rawlings]

Hi, Kat.

 

To test for aluminum oxide I'd think to use aluminon, but if the oxide is embedded in plastic and you are testing whether or not it has been removed then I don't know how, really, you could use that method effectively.

 

I think your best bet might be to use a black light or a UV light. The oxide should fluoresce (glow a blue color) when you shine a UV or black light on it in a dark room. I just shined a UV light on a piece of metal coated with aluminum oxide and it fluoresced quite a bit. If you're lucky then you're working with plastic that doesn't show well under UV light. That way all you should have to do is use a black light lamp or a UV lamp and see if you have speckles that glow in the plastic under the lamp.

 

~modest

 

Thanks. The al oxide is embedded in the plastic so I'm not sure how I would test using aluminon. Sounds like we could get a qualitative result using UV light anyway. Thank you.

[deepat]

Hey was looking for this. Thanks for the idea. UV is much easier than aluminon