7. Which Sample Cell Holders can I use with the Variable Temp Cell & Electrical Heating Jacket?

Specac offers a range of transmission accessories to allow a sample to be studied at temperatures other than ambient.

P/N 21525 Variable Temperature Cell, range –190C to 250C

P/N 20730 Electrical Heating Jacket, range ambient to 250C

Specific sample cell holders for liquids and solids are used within these accessories. Liquid cells are supplied with windows from a wide range of materials to cover many sample applications.

All sample cells can also be operated at ambient temperature and pressure when used with the 3” x 2” mount sample holder P/N 20740. For experiments at high pressures, High Pressure Heatable Liquid Flow Cells P/N 05910 series can be used in the Electrical Heating Jacket and Variable Temperature Cell. These cells are supplied with their own 3” x 2” mounting plate for use in Spectrometers at ambient temperature.

Liquid Cell Holders

There are many combinations for liquid cells and they can be provided as:

P/N 20500 series static sealed

P/N 20510 series static demountable

P/N 20560 series flow sealed

P/N 20570 series flow sealed (only used in P/N 20730)

P/N 20580 series flow demountable (only used in P/N 20730)

Each version is supplied as a complete assembled cell with windows and a spacer at the pathlength of your choice. Sealed cells have a lead spacer and lead top gasket and all components are permanently amalgamated/sealed together. Demountable cells have a PTFE spacer and PTFE top gasket and as such allow for windows and spacer pathlengths to be interchangeable within these versions. A threaded luer fitting, flushing tube, syringe needle, 2 PTFE washers and 3/32” Allen key are also included with the static version cells. The flow cells have an alternative front plate with permanent Swagelok connection fittings. The threaded luer and flushing tube cannot be attached to the flow cell front plate.

For a liquid flow cell to be accommodated in the Variable Temperature Cell P/N 21525, a different type of front flow plate, offered with the flow kit P/N 20080, is used with a static sealed 20500 series cell. These versions of flow cells for the Variable Temperature cell are P/N 20560 series cells. The flow front plate of the P/N 20080 kit has two 1/16” stainless steel flow tubes welded to the sample inlet and outlet ports on the plate. The flow tubes are specifically shaped to allow for a liquid flow cell to fit in the Variable Temperature Cell and be connected via Swagelok fittings to an external liquid supply. Specac recommends use of a sealed cell within the Variable Temperature cell to offer the best sealing integrity to contain a liquid sample when in the local operating vacuum environment.

Theoretically it is possible to attach the flow kit P/N 20080 to a static demountable P/N 20510 series cell, to make a demountable flow cell for use in the Variable Temperature cell P/N 21525, but there is always the risk of sample leakage. For very small pathlength cells (less than 0.025mm), Mylar at nominally 0.006mm and 0.012mm thickness can only be used as the spacer material and hence the cell cannot be amalgamated/sealed.

Either a sealed or demountable flow cell constructed by use of the flow plate from the flow kit P/N 20080 can be used in both the Variable Temperature cell and Electrical Heating Jacket. It is important to note that the P/N’s 20570 and 20580 series flow cells cannot be used in the Variable Temperature cell.

Solid Cell Holders

There are two types of solids holder, P/N 20600 and P/N 20610. P/N 20600 is used in the Electrical Heating Jacket P/N 20730. The body has a fixed size aperture of 10mm and hence solid samples can be analyzed from 12mm to 28mm diameter and up to 3mm thick. P/N 20610 is used in the Variable Temperature Cell P/N 21525. The solids holder consists of outer and inner cell threaded bodies and three pairs of pressure plates. The varying aperture sizes of the pressure plates enable samples with a diameter of 12 - 17mm, 17 - 22mm and 22 - 30mm and up to 8mm thick to be analyzed.

Both solid holders do not require any windows for operation.