Environmental airborne tritium monitoring system based on absorption of tritiated water on calcium chloride.

Environmental monitoring of tritium around nuclear facilities is conducted in order to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements on the protection of members of the public. Multiple techniques are used to monitor its concentration in air, soil and flora. A new monitoring system was developed, which is based on the absorption of tritiated water on Calcium Chloride grains.

Conductivity fluctuations in proton-implanted ZnO microwires.

Electric noise can be an important limitation for applications of conducting elements in the nanometer size range. The intrinsic electrical noise of prospective materials for opto-spintronics applications like ZnO has not yet been characterized. In this study, we have investigated the conductivity fluctuations in 10 nm thick current paths produced by proton implantation of ZnO microwires at room temperature.

Assay of carbon nanoparticles in liquids.

The critical assay of carbon black concentration suffers from the lack of available methods, especially in-situ methods suitable for nanoparticles. We propose a useful tool for monitoring carbon nanoparticles concentration in liquids by means of RGB imaging, fluorescence and conductivity measurements. In this study carbon black particles of 25-75nm size were dispersed within two types of "green" liquids (1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium based ionic liquids and glycerol) and the effect of carbon nanoparticles concentration on the liquids properties was measured.

Fast determination of ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y activity in milk by Cherenkov counting.

Cherenkov counting of the ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y pure beta emitters is an attractive method for ⁹⁰Sr activity determination, but the color quenching effect may be significant, especially for strongly colored or semi-opaque media. A quench correction method based on the external source of some liquid scintillation systems (named ESAR - external source area ratio) was proposed and checked for aqueous solutions and was proved to be effective also for urine samples. In the present work, the application of the ESAR method for fast determination of ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y activity in milk samples is described.

Detection of heavy metals in water using dye nano-complexants and a polymeric film.

An optical analytical method, based on complexation reactions of organic azo-dyes with heavy metals, is proposed. It is based on a specially designed polymeric film that when submerged in water contaminated with heavy metals it changes its color. The azo-dyes are injected into the tested water, resulting in formation of nano-particles of insoluble complexes.