A HUMIDITY CONTROL TECHNIQUE BASED ON NAFION MEMBRANE AND ITS APPLICATION ON THE EVALUATION OF HUMIDITY RESPONSE FOR RADON MONITOR

: Electrostatic collection technique is widely used in various radon monitors. The mechanism of this kind of radon monitor is that the positive Po particles, produced by decay of radon, can be collected on the surface of detector in electric field. Collection efficiency, therefore, could be affected by air humidity. Calibration under different humidity conditions or test of humidity response is necessary consequently. In this study, a humidity control technique based on Nafion membrane tube (NMT) is developed. Under a consistent flowrate with a certain stable level of radon concentration and humidity of main-path inlet, the humidity of outlet sample gas from the main-path can be adjusted and stably controlled at a certain level by changing side-path's flowrates of NMT. By adjusting main and side-path flowrate, RH of outlet gas of the main-path can be controlled from 5.3 to 80.0%. Theoretical study were also performed. Based on this, humidity influence calibration of an electrostatic radon monitor was performed, and a relationship between the sensitivity of the radon monitor and relative humidity was obtained.