Commercial high-purity copper is an attractive material for constructing ultra-low-background radiation measurement devices. When even higher purity is desired, additional electrolytic and chemical purification can be combined with the final fabrication step. This process results in “electroformed” copper parts of extreme purity. Copper electroforming can be done underground, providing a way to eliminate cosmogenic activation products seen in copper that has had above-ground exposure. A brief summary of the history, cosmogenics, process chemistry, cleaning, and passivation of this material is given. Examples of finished parts illustrate the method. The required infrastructure is summarized.
Revised: April 20, 2006 |
Published: November 1, 2005
Citation
Aalseth C.E., R.L. Brodzinski, O.T. Farmer, E.W. Hoppe, T.W. Hossbach, H.S. Miley, and J.H. Reeves. 2005.Ultra-Low-Background Copper Production and Clean Fabrication. In Topical Workshop on Low Radioactivity Techniques: LRT 2004 Sudbury, Ontario (Canada), 12-14 December 2004., edited by Bruce Cleveland, Richard Ford, and Mark Chen, 785, 170-176. Melville, New York:American Institute of Physics.PNNL-SA-45365.doi:10.1063/1.2060468