Quality of Polyimide Foils for Nuclear Applications in Relation to a New Preparation Procedure

For more than 30 years thin polyimide foils are produced at IRMM by in-situ polymerisation. The procedure consists of three steps, all performed under ambient conditions: preparation of a polycondensate solution used for foil forming by spreading on a glass plate, removal of the solvent by thermal treatment for four hours at 100°C and final polymerisation at high temperature (350°C). Recently modifications of this procedure including preparation in an argon atmosphere and elimination of the time-consuming solvent removal were applied. The influence of those modifications on the quality of the foils was studied by testing the mechanical and thermal properties and the lifetime of the foil under a charged projectile beam. The influence of the modifications on the characteristics an don the level of impurities in the foils is presented as well. The comparative studies of parameters were performed for foils with an areal density between 20 µg·cm-2 and 80 µg·cm-2. This work showed that the foils prepared by the new fast preparation way in a dry atmosphere have the best properties for nuclear physics applications.

SIBBENS Goedele;  LUYCKX Kwinten;  STOLARZ Anna;  JASKOLA M.;  KORMAN A.;  MOENS Andre;  EYKENS Roger;  SAPUNDJIEV Danislav;  AREGBE Yetunde; 

2011-11-08

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

JRC61271

0168-9002,   

www.elsevier.com/locate/nima,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC61271,   

10.1016/j.nima.2011.06.018,