Appeal No. 95-0339
Application 07/881,941
gaseous contaminants deposit on said exterior surface, said
attenuated total reflectance plate having an electromagnetic
radiation inlet and an electromagnetic radiation outlet;
means for introducing electromagnetic radiation into said
attenuated total reflectance plate at said inlet wherein said
radiation introduced into said plate remains within said plate,
but interacts with said contaminants present on said exterior
surface of said plate to produce altered electromagnetic
radiation which exits said plate at said outlet; and
means for detecting said altered electromagnetic radiation
as it exits said attenuated total reflectance plate at said
outlet to thereby provide real-time detection of said
contaminants present in said supercritical fluid.
9. A method for detecting the presence of contaminants in
supercritical fluid comprising the steps of:
providing a processing vessel which contains supercritical
fluid;
removing at least a portion of supercritical fluid from said
processing vessel and introducing said portion of supercritical
fluid into a contaminant measurement zone as a sample stream;
maintaining the pressure within said measurement zone at or
below the level required to convert said sample stream into a gas
wherein contaminants present in said sample stream remain
in a non-gaseous form;
using an attenuated total reflectance plate to spectro-
photometrically detect the presence of said non-gaseous
contaminants which are deposited on the exterior surface of
said plate to thereby provide for real-time detection of said
contaminants present in said supercritical fluid.
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