An investigation into the effect on the radiation shielding of an aqueous solution when a solute is added

<p>Our experiment is an investigation into the effect on the radiation shielding of an aqueous solution when a solute is added. We hypothesised that as the concentration of sucrose increased, the total number of detected particles would decrease. Our reasoning was that the larger sucrose molecules would impede the radiation, especially the alpha particles which we thought would be more likely to be deflected. Whilst collecting the data we discovered we could measure the energy distribution of the impinging particles, which we decided to investigate also. A Jablotron MX-10 detector [1, 2], featuring a Timepix hybrid silicon pixel detector [3], was provided by the CERN@school programme and was used to measure the ionising radiation.</p> <p>Please note that T. Whyntie is not an author, but has uploaded this poster to FigShare on behalf of the authors. This is <strong>DRN000223</strong> in the CERN@school document inventory.</p> <p>[1] https://www.jablotron.com</p> <p>[2] J. Jakubek et al. "<em>USB interface for Medipix2 pixel device enabling energy and position-sensitive detection of heavy charged particles</em>", Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A. <strong>563</strong> (2006) 112-115 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2006.01.114</p> <p>[3] X. Llopart et al.: "<em>Timepix, a 65k programmable pixel readout chip for arrival time, energy and/or photon counting measurements</em>", Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A. <strong>581</strong> (2007) 485-494 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2007.08.079