Determination of radon using solid state nuclear tracks wireless sensing method

The aim of this paper is to develop a solid state nuclear tracks (SSNTs) wireless magnetoelastic sensing method for the determination of radon. In this method, wireless sensors for detecting radon are fabricated by coating polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) film on the surface of magnetoelastic foils. The magnetoelastic sensing technique has the unique characteristic of being able to wirelessly detect resonance frequency shifts of a magnetoelastic foil in response to differences in the mass of foil. When the sensor is exposed to the environment containing radon, the PMMA film on the sensor is attacked by alpha-particles emitted from radon, generating latent SSNTs. After the sensor is chemically etched, the latent SSNTs in the PMMA film are enlarged and the sensor loses a certain mass, resulting in a shift in resonance frequency of the sensor. Consequently, the radon concentration can be determined by measuring the shift in resonance frequency. Under the conditions of the etchant concentration, etching temperature and etching time being 20% (w/w), 80 °C and 18 min, respectively, the linear range for the determination of radon is 1.20 × 105 to 3.60337199 × 106 Bq m−3 h with the detection limit of 20.3 × 103 Bq m−3 h. The method has been applied for the determination of radon in air samples with satisfactory results.