skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Study of radon reduction in gases for rare event search experiments

Journal Article · · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  2. Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The noble elements, argon and xenon, are frequently employed as the target and event detector for weakly interacting particles such as neutrinos and Dark Matter. For such rare processes, background radiation must be carefully minimized. Radon provides one of the most significant contaminants since it is an inevitable product of trace amounts of natural uranium. To design a purification system for reducing such contamination, the adsorption characteristics of radon in nitrogen, argon, and xenon carrier gases on various types of charcoals with different adsorbing properties and intrinsic radioactive purities have been studied in the temperature range of 190-295 K at flow rates of 0.5 and 2 standard liters per minute. Essential performance parameters for the various charcoals include the average breakthrough times (τ), dynamic adsorption coefficients (ka) and the number of theoretical stages (n). It is shown that the ka-values for radon in nitrogen, argon, and xenon increase as the temperature of the charcoal traps decreases, and that they are significantly larger in nitrogen and argon than in xenon gas due to adsorption saturation effects. It is found that, unlike in xenon, the dynamic adsorption coefficients for radon in nitrogen and argon strictly obey the Arrhenius law. The experimental results strongly indicate that nitric acid etched Saratech is the best candidate among all used charcoal brands. Lastly, it allows reducing total radon concentration in the LZ liquid Xe detector to meet the ultimate goal in the search for Dark Matter.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0019193; SC0015708
OSTI ID:
1670984
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1548040
Journal Information:
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 903; ISSN 0168-9002
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 22 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (13)

Large scale xenon purification using cryogenic distillation for dark matter detectors journal November 2014
Heavy‐ion migration through argon and helium in weak electric fields journal May 1991
Radon removal from gaseous xenon with activated charcoal
  • Abe, K.; Hieda, K.; Hiraide, K.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 661, Issue 1, p. 50-57 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2011.09.051
journal January 2012
Development of super-high sensitivity radon detector for the Super-Kamiokande detector
  • Mitsuda, C.; Kajita, T.; Miyano, K.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 497, Issue 2-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(02)01923-X
journal February 2003
Analytical function for fitting peaks in alpha-particle spectra from Si detectors journal January 1987
Results from a Search for Dark Matter in the Complete LUX Exposure journal January 2017
Radon mitigation during the installation of the CUORE 0νββ decay detector journal January 2018
222Rn emanation measurements at extremely low activities journal July 2000
The two-dimensional van der Waals constants of molecules adsorbed on charcoal and graphite journal January 1958
Development of an ultra-sensitive radon detector for the SuperNEMO experiment journal December 2011
The initial atmospheric behavior of radon decay products journal March 1996
The status and initial results of the Majorana demonstrator experiment
  • Guiseppe, V. E.; Abgrall, N.; Alvis, S. I.
  • PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF GLOBAL NETWORK FOR INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY AND AWAM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN CIVIL ENGINEERING (IGNITE-AICCE’17): Sustainable Technology And Practice For Infrastructure and Community Resilience, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007635
conference January 2017
Discrete-time high order neural network identifier trained with cubature Kalman filter journal December 2018

Cited By (2)

Projected WIMP sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment text January 2018
Characterization and long-term performance of the Radon Trapping Facility operating at the Modane Underground Laboratory journal September 2019

Figures / Tables (14)

Figure 1(p. 2)figure Figure 1
Figure 2(p. 3)figure Figure 2
Table 1(p. 4)table Table 1
Figure 3(p. 5)figure Figure 3
Table 2(p. 5)table Table 2
Figure 4(p. 6)figure Figure 4
Figure 5(p. 6)figure Figure 5
Figure 6(p. 6)figure Figure 6
Table 3(p. 7)table Table 3
Table 4(p. 7)table Table 4
Figure 7(p. 8)figure Figure 7
Figure 8(p. 8)figure Figure 8
Figure 9(p. 9)figure Figure 9
Figure 10(p. 10)figure Figure 10

Similar Records

Performance study of charcoal-based radon reduction systems for ultraclean rare event detectors
Journal Article · Fri Jul 23 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Journal of Instrumentation · OSTI ID:1670984
+2 more
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) radioactivity and cleanliness control programs
Journal Article · Tue Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2020 · European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields · OSTI ID:1670984
+387 more
Search for Dark Matter with the LZ Experiment
Technical Report · Wed Aug 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · OSTI ID:1670984

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Radon
Noble gases
Dual phase detector
Time-projection chamber
Dark matter
Neutrinoless double beta decay