Fusor Forums

Be very careful that it is not pure silver "leaf". Hard to handle and work with.

If it is leaf, cut about 6 pages out, (intact), do not mess with the silver. Mount the thin paper interleaved silvers on a frame and try irradiating that. If you use too many pages the betas might be absorbed in the paper. Leaf can easily be one ten thousandth of an inch thick!! Using and handling it is somewhat of an art. While gilding is no longer a hot job for skilled workers, those gilders remaining have a life-time of experience in the art. Once applied, gilded metals, especially gold leaf, are very tenacious and last many years.

Metals this thin are easily sheared and broken up in application. Leaf metals are ruled by electrostatic and Van der Walls forces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Waals_force

Wiki also notes........
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How thick is silver leaf?
0.5 microns
Each leaf is beaten to approx. 0.5 microns thick. Whether you purchase European Silver leaf or chinese, the size (3 3/8" sq) and thickness (0.5 microns) is standard.
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My final word.....Nasty, nasty stuff!

Richard Hull

I did not order silver "leaf". That stuff as mentioned is incredibly thin at 0.5 microns and hard to work with. Foil on the other hand can be anywhere from 1 to 8 microns thick. I had the best results by "picking it up" with packing tape. The foil faces the GM tube, so there is no attenuation at all between the tube and the foil. It's no big feat for the thermal neutrons to penetrate the layer of packing tape.