Novel poly (sulfone-carbonate) polymers for rapid revelation of charged particle tracks by chemical etching process

Abstract

This paper describes the synthesis and performance of two novel poly (sulfone-carbonate) polymeric detectors for rapid revelation of charged particle tracks by chemical etching. Both the novel detectors were found to have alpha sensitivity higher than that of commercially used PADC (commercially available as CR-39™) detectors. A homopolymer Poly (2,2′-sulfonyl diethanol bis (allyl carbonate)) (PSDAC) from 2,2′-sulfonyldiethanol bis(allyl carbonate monomer (SDAC) and its copolymers with allyl diglycol carbonate (ADC) i.e. poly(SDAC-co-ADC) were successfully used as nuclear track detectors. The copolymer made from SDAC: ADC (4:6 w/w) shows maximum alpha sensitivity, almost double than that of PADC. Both these newly developed detectors can revel alpha tracks from 239Pu source in 30 s and fission fragments from 252Cf source in 10 s when chemically etched using 6 N NaOH at 70 °C, as compared to about 120 min and 45 min respectively, required for PADC at identical exposure and etching condition. Both the polymeric detectors can reveal charged particle tracks rapidly and effectively even by using 3 N NaOH at 60 °C etching condition. Here, we present our preliminary observations regarding the performance of the novel polymers containing sulfone-carbonate moieties and evaluation in comparison with the commercially available CR-39 polymeric track detector.