Purification of commercial yttrium metal: Removal of fluorine

We have performed refining process of yttrium (Y) by removal of fluorine (F) residually existing in commercial Y metal. It was demonstrated that combination of conventional plasma arc melting and mechanical surface polishing is a powerful method for removal of F, the residual concentration of which was traced by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of as processed material and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy of as deposited films, which were grown using the processed material as a deposition source. As a result, the concentration of F in our purified material was assessed to be smaller than 3.5wtppm, which is approximately 1.3 % of the initial F concentration present in the unpurified material (260wtppm). •Removal of fluorine from commercial yttrium.•Combination of Ar plasma arc melting and surface mechanical polishing.•Tracing residual fluorine in purified materials by EDX and XPS measurements.•Thermal depositions using unpurified and purified yttrium.•Hydrogenation of the as deposited yttrium film and its Hall effect measurement.