MeV-proton capillary microbeam PIXE mapping study of solution diffusion in paper

Abstract

A tapered glass capillary MeV-ion microbeam setup, previously home-developed, was recently upgraded. To check the upgraded microbeam system quality and accuracy, microbeam particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) mapping of potassium permanganate (KMnO4) solution diffusion in filter paper was carried out to study how the measured solvent diffusion followed the diffusion laws. Two initial boundary conditions and diffusion situations were applied: (1) the paper vertically placed in air with one end soaked in the solution for ten minutes, and (2) the paper horizontally placed on water with the solution dropped at a side of the paper for three minutes. 2-MeV-proton microbeam PIXE analyzed the paper pixel by pixel and the GUPIXWIN software was used to calculate the elemental concentrations in the pixels to map the concentration changes in the pixels as a function of the distance between the pixel position and the origin of the solution. The resulting maps demonstrated the solution diffusions in two cases indeed well following the diffusion laws, a steady-state diffusion dominated process where the elemental concentration was a linear function with the distance but joined by other non-diffusion factors for case 1, and a pure diffusion process where the elemental concentration was an error function with the distance for case 2.