Physicochemical principles behind the preparation of high-purity arsenic compounds from lewisite detoxification products

Abstract

High-purity arsine suitable for the growth of gallium arsenide-based epitaxial heterostructures has been prepared by processing a lewisite detoxification product: hydrolytic sodium arsenite. The proposed method involves the dissolution of hydrolytic sodium arsenite in water; electrolysis of the solution, resulting in the formation of arsenic acid and sodium hydroxide, which is subsequently used to absorb released chlorine; electrochemical arsine synthesis from the arsenic acid; and arsine purification by fractionation to a level of 99.9999%.