Abstract
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