Ezeribe, A.C., Lynch, W., Gregorio, R.R.M. et al. (3 more authors) (2017) Demonstration of radon removal from SF6 using molecular sieves. Journal of Instrumentation, 12.
Abstract
The gas SF6 has become of interest as a negative ion drift gas for use in directional dark matter searches. However, as for other targets in such searches, it is important that radon contamination can be removed as this provides a source of unwanted background events. In this work we demonstrate for the first time filtration of radon from SF6 gas by using a molecular sieve. Four types of sieves from Sigma-Aldrich were investigated, namely 3Å, 4Å, 5Å and 13X. A manufactured radon source was used for the tests. This was attached to a closed loop system in which gas was flowed through the filters and a specially adapted Durridge RAD7 radon detector. In these measurements, it was found that only the 5Å type was able to significantly reduce the radon concentration without absorbing the SF6 gas. The sieve was able to reduce the initial radon concentration of 3875 ± 13 Bqm−3 in SF6 gas by 87% when cooled with dry ice. The ability of the cooled 5Å molecular sieve filter to significantly reduce radon concentration from SF6 provides a promising foundation for the construction of a radon filtration setup for future ultra-sensitive SF6 gas rare-event physics experiments.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Sissa Medialab. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. |
Keywords: | Gas systems and purification; Gaseous detectors; Particle tracking detectors (Gaseous detectors) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Oct 2017 10:21 |
Last Modified: | 19 Oct 2017 10:21 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/12/09/P09025 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | IOP Publishing |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1088/1748-0221/12/09/P09025 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:122606 |