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SPARTE - Scintillating Porous Architectures for RadioacTivE gas detection

SCINT 2024 SPARTE Summer school at UNIMIB in Milan, Italy (7-8th July 2024)

SPARTE team at LNE, Paris (October 2023)

(F. Cova, J. Perego, Y. Cheref, A. Vedda, P. Mai, M. Antico, P. Odet, A. Comotti, C. Dujardin, C. Daniel, C.-X. Bezuidenhout, M. Orfano, F. Chaput, B. Sabot, G. Patton, A. Monguzzi, L. Prouzkova, J. Barta, G. Bertrand, V. Cuba)

SPARTE team in front of CTU building in Prague (November 2022)

Meet the young researchers recruited by the SPARTE consortium

Project key information

Call: FETOPEN-01-2018-2019-2020 Challenging Current Thinking
Duration: 4 years as from 1st October 2020
Funding: 2 909 631 €
Coordinator: Pr. Christophe Dujardin, Institute of Light and Matter, Université Lyon 1

Summary

Radioactive gases are key targets for the environment, making gas monitoring an important issue. SPARTE will focus on the detection and activity measurement metrology of tracers related to nuclear activities. In this respect, the detection of 85Kr, 133Xe, 3H, 37Ar, being all emitter or electron capture radionuclides, is targeted. SPARTE will implement and achieve a radically novel radioactive gas detection and radioactivity metrology, by introducing highly porous scintillating aerogels and/or Metal-Organic Frameworks designed to dramatically extend gas-matter interaction for effective detection through scintillation. These materials after development and optimization will combine an efficient, fast and isotropic scintillation ensuring homogeneous 3D response and high sensitivity for metrology.
The goal will be to realize functional solid-based sensors generating a close intermixing between the sensor and the analyte and to combine efficiency and homogeneity. Major breakthroughs are foreseen: a calibration method for low activity range of 85Kr and 133Xe, a real time detection system of for some noble gas and 3H with a significantly improved sensitivity in an easy deployable system, a detector for 37Ar.  SPARTE consortium proposes a unique combination of competences aimed at succeeding in the difficult task of pioneering a new technology track, from sensor as porous scintillator to critical radioactive gas detection and metrology method development. It covers the six critical skills - i.e. aerogels and MOFs scintillating monolith preparation, structural and scintillation characterization, ionizing radiation detection and its modeling – needed to reach our goals. The consortium combines 4 leading research centers and 2 SMEs around 3 core expertises - processing, characterization and metrology - also encompassing the industrial perspective, in order to create the interdisciplinary “substrate” necessary for a successful outcome of the project.