Publications

The Analytical Chemistry Department uses a system of job cards to control and monitor the work through the organization. In the past, many different systems have been developed to allow each laboratory to monitor their individual work and report data. Unfortunately, these systems were separate and unique which caused difficulty in ascertaining any overall picture of the Department`s workload. To overcome these shortcomings, a new Job Card System was developed on Lotus Notes/Domino{trademark} for tracking the work through the laboratory. This application is groupware/database software and is located on the Sandia Intranet which allows users of any type of computer running a network browser to access the system. Security is provided through the use of logons and passwords for users who must add and/or modify information on the system. Customers may view the jobs in process by entering the system as an anonymous user. An overall view of the work in the department can be obtained by selecting from a variety of on screen reports. This enables the analysts, customers, customer contacts, and the Department Manager to quickly evaluate the work in process, the resources required, and the availability of equipment. On-line approval of the work and e-mail messaging of completed jobs has been provided to streamline the review and approval cycle. This paper provides a guide for the use of the Job Card System and information on maintenance of the system.

Determining the quantity of deuterium in an erbium deuteride (ErD{sub 2}) film is essential for assessing the quality of the hydriding process but is a challenging measurement to make. First, the ideal gas law cannot be applied directly due to high temperature (950{degrees}C) and low temperature (25{degrees}C) regions in the same manifold. Additionally, the metal hydride does not release all of the deuterium rapidly upon heating and metal evaporation occurs during extended heating periods. Therefore, the method developed must provide a means to compensate for temperature inhomogeneities and the amount of deuterium retained in the metal film while heating for a minimal duration. This paper presents two thermal desorption methods used to evaluate the kinetics and equilibria of the deuterium desorption process at high temperatures (950{degrees}C). Of primary concern is the evaluation of the quantity of deuterium remaining in these films at the high temperature. A multiple volume expansion technique provided insight into the kinetics of the deuterium evolution and metal evaporation from the film. Finally a repeated pump-down approach yielded data that indicated approximately 10% of the deuterium is retained in the metal film at 950{degrees}C and approximately 1 Torr pressure. When the total moles of deuterium determined by this method were divided by the moles of erbium determined by ICP/AES, nearly stochiometric values of 2:1 were obtained for several erbium dideuteride films. Although this work presents data for erbium and deuterium, these methods are applicable to other metal hydrides as well.