Abstract
A NUMBER of natural and artificial radioactive elements are known to exist in the atmosphere. The active atoms, other than those which form gases, get attached to aerosols present in the air and can be collected on filters capable or retaining the aerosols. The filters generally used for this purpose are: (1), mechanical and (2), electrostatic. Mechanical filters, if made efficient for retaining fine aerosols (of dimensions 0.01µ), have large resistance to air flow; hence it is difficult to process large amounts of air and therefore to measure weak activities. Electrostatic filters have negligible resistance to air flow and are efficient for retaining fine particles up to ∼ 0.01µ. Their efficiency for still smaller sizes decreases because of the difficulty of charging very fine aerosols.
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RAMA Condensation Processes for the Extraction of Radioactivity from Air. Nature 184, 1789–1790 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1841789a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1841789a0
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