Scientists of the Russian Chemical Technical University named after. D. I. Mendeleeva, SINP MSU, JINR and National Research University BelSU have developed a hybrid material based on plastic
The new material solves the main problem of searching for dark matter - signals from other, unrelated events that need to be excluded during work.
It also protects against high-energy neutrons from entering the detector, which are released during the fission of uranium or other radioactive elements that enter the detector material as impurities.
New inexpensive and low-background material with greatamount of hydrogen consists of atoms that capture extraneous background neutrons. Another component of the material - rare earth metal gadolinium, which captures thermal neutrons more efficiently than other non-radioactive elements.
In the international project DarkSide 20K, whichbeing implemented in the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso in Italy, a 20-ton chamber with liquid argon is being built, which can potentially capture dark matter particles. This chamber needs a shell that absorbs background neutrons so that they do not affect the interaction of dark matter particles with argon nuclei. In addition, the cladding material itself must be ultra-low-background in terms of radioactive elements. This is our part of the project: we are working on the creation of structural elements from such a material.
Igor Avetisov, Head of the Department of Chemistry and Crystal Technology at Russian Chemical Technical University
During the experiment, the authors produced a small amount of the new material and showed that it was enough to make the body of a dark matter detector.
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