Effect of particle sizes on the efficiency of fluorinated nanodiamond neutron reflectors
Aleksenskii A. Bleuel M. Bosak A. Chumakova A. Dideikin A. Dubois M. Korobkina E. Lychagin E. Muzychka A. Nekhaev G. Nesvizhevsky V. Nezvanov A. Schweins R. Shvidchenko A. Strelkov A. Turlybekuly K. Vul’ A. Zhernenkov K.
November 2021MDPI
Nanomaterials
2021#11Issue 11
Over a decade ago, it was confirmed that detonation nanodiamond (DND) powders reflect very cold neutrons (VCNs) diffusively at any incidence angle and that they reflect cold neutrons quasi-specularly at small incidence angles. In the present publication, we report the results of a study on the effect of particle sizes on the overall efficiency of neutron reflectors made of DNDs. To perform this study, we separated, by centrifugation, the fraction of finer DND nanoparticles (which are referred to as S-DNDs here) from a broad initial size distribution and experimentally and theoretically compared the performance of such a neutron reflector with that from deagglomerated fluorinated DNDs (DF-DNDs). Typical commercially available DNDs with the size of ~4.3 nm are close to the optimum for VCNs with a typical velocity of ~50 m/s, while smaller and larger DNDs are more efficient for faster and slower VCN velocities, respectively. Simulations show that, for a realistic reflector geometry, the replacement of DF-DNDs (a reflector with the best achieved performance) by S-DNDs (with smaller size DNDs) increases the neutron albedo in the velocity range above ~60 m/s. This increase in the albedo results in an increase in the density of faster VCNs in such a reflector cavity of up to ~25% as well as an increase in the upper boundary of the velocities of efficient VCN reflection.
Albedo , Detonation nanodiamonds , Fluorination , Monte Carlo , Nanopowder , Reflectors of slow neutrons , Size separation of nanodiamonds
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Laboratory of Physics for Cluster Structures, Ioffe Institute, Polytechnicheskaya Str. 26, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russian Federation
National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research, Gaithersburg, 20899, MD, United States
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742, MD, United States
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 av. des Martyrs, Grenoble, F-38042, France
Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand (ICCF UME 6296), Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, 24 av. Blaise Pascal, Aubière, F-63178, France
Department of Nuclear Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 27695, NC, United States
Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 6 Joliot Curie, Dubna, 141980, Russian Federation
Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, GSP-1, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
Department of Nuclear Physics, Dubna State University, Universitetskaya 19, Dubna, 141982, Russian Federation
Institut Max von Laue–Paul Langevin, 71 av. des Martyrs, Grenoble, F-38042, France
Faculty of Physics and Technology, L.N. Gumilyov, Eurasian National University, Satpayev Str. 2, Nur-Sultan, 010000, Kazakhstan
The Institute of Nuclear Physics, Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Ibragimova Str. 1, Almaty, 050032, Kazakhstan
JCNS at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Forshungzentrum Julich GmbH, 1 Lichtenbergstrasse, Garching, G-85748, Germany
Laboratory of Physics for Cluster Structures
National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand (ICCF UME 6296)
Department of Nuclear Engineering
Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics
Faculty of Physics
Department of Nuclear Physics
Institut Max von Laue–Paul Langevin
Faculty of Physics and Technology
The Institute of Nuclear Physics
JCNS at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ)
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