Novel Technique for Ultra-sensitive Determination of Trace Elements in Organic Scintillators

Abstract

A technique based on neutron activation has been developed for an extremely high sensitivity analysis of trace elements in organic materials. Organic materials are sealed in plastic or high purity quartz and irradiated at the HFIR and MITR. The most volatile materials such as liquid scintillator (LS) are first preconcentrated by clean vacuum evaporation. Activities of interest are separated from side activities by acid digestion and ion exchange. The technique has been applied to study the liquid scintillator used in the KamLAND neutrino experiment. Detection limits of <2.4X10**-15 g 40K/g LS, <5.5X10**-15 g Th/g LS, and <8X10**-15 g U/g LS have been achieved.

arXiv comment16 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods A

References in corpus (2)

• First Results from KamLAND: Evidence for Reactor Anti-Neutrino Disappearance
• The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Systematic study of trace radioactive impurities in candidate construction materials for EXO-200
• Radioactive contamination of scintillators
• Measurement of Ultra-Low Potassium Contaminations with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
• Mass spectrometric analyses of high performance polymers to assess radiopurity as ultra low background materials for rare event physics detectors
• Radiopurity screening of materials for rare event searches by neutron activation at the TRIGA reactor of Pavia