Speaker
Mr
Raymond NOEL
(Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM))
Description
For many experiments working at low energy and very low counting rate in particle and astroparticle physics, the background from the Radon decay chain is one of the strongest constraints. Most of the time, activated charcoal filters are used to dynamically capture the radon from the air or from the gas of the detectors. In general case activated charcoal is a good adsorptive material. It has large effective surface and broad porosity, going from macro to nanopores. However, the big constraints from futures experiments need ad hoc radon capture filters. The optimal adsorption depends on various parameters such as the correct pore size and shape, the temperature, the microscopic structure of the adsorbent or the competition between radon and carrier gas.
In this context, we have developed at Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM), a test bench to study the radon capture in various porous materials1. Several very interesting results have been already obtained with non-standard, commercially and research adsorbents like some Carbon Molecular Sieves (CMS), organic molecular cage (CC3)2, or carbon aerogels.
In this talk we present a global quantitative and qualitative study of radon adsorption in porous materials. This work is the results of the analysis of more than 30 porous materials in the framework of the collaboration between particle physicist and chemist from several universities.
1. Busto, J. & Collaboration, S. Radon adsorption in nanoporous carbon materials. AIP Conference Proceedings 1549, 112–115 (AIP Publishing, 2013).
2. Chen, L. et al. Separation of rare gases and chiral molecules by selective binding in porous organic cages. Nature Materials 13, 954–960 (2014).
Primary author
Mr
Raymond NOEL
(Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM))
