Always make sure you have read the corresponding MSDS beforehand and wear safety goggles and chemically resistant gloves when working with liquid chemicals, and make sure to share a TRA (Task Risk Analysis) or a complete operating procedure with the technicians. After they approve the operating procedure, which should include the transportation of the chemical to the lab and how to throw it away, you should be able to confidently use this chemical.
¶ List of common liquid chemicals
Some commonly used chemicals in the cleanroom are (this list does not include all resists.):
- Acetone (cleaning agent, remover for PMMA based e-beam resists)
- Anisole / methoxybenzene (solvent for PMMA-based e-beam resists)
- Aqua regia / 1:3 mixture of HNO3 & HCl (cleaning agent, removal of noble metals)
- Chloroform / CHCl3 (solvent for processing polymers, p-doping of 2D materials (e.g. monolayer WSe2).)
- Cyclopentanone (solvent for epoxy-based photoresists such as SU-8)
- Ethanol (cleaning agent, temporary lubing)
- Demiwater / demineralized water (cooling water, solvent)
- Ethyl lactate (biodegradable solvent in photoresists)
- IPA / isopropanol / isopropyl alcohol (cleaning agent, solvent for developers such as MIBK)
- MIBK / methyl isobutyl ketone (developer for e-beam resists, solvent for PMMA)
- NMP / N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (remover for resists, cleaning agent)
- PMMA / poly(methylmethacrylate) (e-beam resist)
- THFA / tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol (solvent for negative photo resists)
- Xylene (removal for PMMA, cleaning agent in EBL/FIB)
- Hydrochloric acid / HCl (cleaning agent, etchant for Ga-based metals)
- Nitric acid / HNO3 (cleaning agent, etchant, oxidization agent)
- HF / hydrofluoric acid (etchant, selective etching of glass/quartz/SiO2)
- Phosphoric acid / H3PO4 (cleaning agent, selective etching of Si3N4)
(Note: still need to add TMAH, NaOH, KOH, ...)