Nanoscopic study of chemical species during uranium electrodeposition for alpha spectrometry sources

Validation of electrodeposited 241Am alpha-particle sources for use in liquified gas detectors at cryogenic temperatures

“…Also, it is important to highlight that the obtained electrodeposition yield for 241 Am was of the order of 100 %, similar to that found by other authors (Hallstadius, 1984;Krmpotić et al, 2017). In this sense, the role played by platinum atoms co-deposited on the cathode surface, and the subsequent increase in the hydroxyl ions concentration, is very important to explain the high yields obtained by the Hallstadius method to prepare actinide sources (Beesley et al, 2009;Méndez et al, 2010). During electrodeposition in this sulphate medium, platinum atoms are dissolved from the anode and, once in solution, deposited on the cathode in the form of a porous structure, thus increasing the concentration of hydroxyl ions and enabling precipitation of insoluble hydroxides…”

“…Since the very early years of the last century, sources of alpha-emitting nuclides have been prepared by electrodeposition from organic or aqueous electrolytes (Broda, 1950;Rodden, 1950) although aqueous electrolytes are preferred since electrodeposition from organic media requires high voltages and the use of organics. In both cases, the actinide elements ( 241 Am in this paper) are too electropositive to be reduced at the cathode surface as metals and the deposit consists of an insoluble compound of the element, commonly oxy-hydroxides (Beesley et al, 2009;Méndez et al, 2010;Crespo, 2012). In the next sections, the methods followed to prepare and validate the sources used in this paper, as well as the experimental setups of detector prototypes, will be described in detail.…”

Preparation and characterization of electrodeposited layers as alpha sources for alpha-particle spectrometry

“…The increased FWHM values and low-energy peak tailing are the origin of peak broadening in alpha spectrum, and make it difficult to determine radioactivity of radionuclides in a sample precisely. Many researches have been reported to find a suitable alpha source by the adjustment of a surface mass density in the range of 15-250 μg/cm 2 with mirror polished stainless steel discs of 2.0 or 2.2 cm diameter of active area [111,112]. Jobbágy et al reported that the surface mass density should be kept below 26 μg/cm 2 with 2.0 cm diameter of active area for uranium in order to obtain both high energy resolution and good counting statistics [113].…”

Evaluation of the suitability of neural network method for prediction of uranium activity ratio in environmental alpha spectra

“…After demonstrating the capability of the network to predict the activity ratio, the real library was produced by a set of the uranium sources. They have to be prepared by electro deposition which is the technique used for the source preparation (Talvitie, 1972;Hallstadius, 1984;Beesley et al, 2009;Méndez et al, 2010).…”