The effect of the type of etchant Solutions on nuclear tracks detector CR-39

The aim of this paper is to find the effect of type of etchant solutions on nuclear track detector cr-39 . cr-39 detectors were irradiated with alpha particle from 241am. the irradiated detectors were etched in a number of some newly introduced etching solutions as well as in conventionally used 7 n naoh and 7 n koh at 70 °c. the newly prepared etching solutions included naoh/1-propanol. processing conditions were optimized for these etchants. from alpha track diameters, bulk etching velocity vb , track etching velocity vt , etching efficiency η , etching ratio v , sensitivity s and critical angle θc and their activation energies were determined and compared with that obtained for 7 n naoh and 7 n koh at 70 °c