The Apiezon family of three different waxes can be used either as a vacuum sealing compound or as a mounting wax. For work with high vacuum and UHV, it would be better to use Vacseal® Vacuum Leak Sealant.
While the hydrocarbon based Apiezon waxes are dissolved by most organic solvents, they are quite resistant to acids and bases such as potassium hydroxide (KOH) and tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH).
The waxes are primarily noncrystalline, or amorphous, and therefore don't exhibit a melting point but instead a "softening" point, above which the viscosity drops quickly with increasing temperature. We do not have any data on the viscosities of the wax after passing through the softening point, but the melted wax is like tar: As the temperature rises the wax softens and gradually becomes more fluid. The best way to get wax in liquid form is to dissolve it in a solvent (we normally recommend d-limonene) but obviously, the solvent needs to be removed at some point by drying.
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Apiezon Wax W (Hardest in terms of hardness) |
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Apiezon Wax W40 (The softest in terms of "hardness") |
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Apiezon Wax W100 (Intermediate in "hardness" between W and W40) |
Wax W100 is inherently softer than Wax W, thus reducing the risk of cracking glass joints if they are subject to vibration. But purely in terms of "hardness" or "softness", Vacseal® Vacuum Leak Sealant is the very softest since it is a silicone formulation.
