Preparation and characterisation of ceramic-based thoron sources for thoron calibration chamber

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the correlations between the properties of the source's material and the thoron flux produced. This means a complex procedure that involves morphological characterisation (the determination of specific surface area and pore size distribution) and thoron emanation and exhalation measurements as well. In this work, the preparation of 27 thoron sources has been carried out. Three types of ceramics with different morphological properties were used as a matrix material with three different thorium contents. Spheres were formed from the dollop, and they were fired at different temperatures (200, 600 and 900°C). The phase analysis of the samples was performed by powder X-ray diffraction. The pore size distribution was determined by mercury penetration. The thoron emanation was measured using an accumulation chamber; the measured thoron emanation coefficients were from 0.34 ± 0.03 to 7.69 ± 0.13 %. Based on the results, the preparation parameters of the thoron source optimised for the calibration procedure have been given.