A liquid-phase loop-mode argon purification system

Noble gas and liquid detectors rely on high chemical purity for successful operation. While gaseous purification has emerged as a reliable method of producing high-purity noble fluids, the requirement for large mass flows drives the development of liquid-phase purification. We constructed a medium-scale liquid argon (LAr) purification system based on a copper catalyst and 4 Å molecular sieve capable of purifying 1 t of commercial LAr 5.0 to a long effective triplet lifetime of τ₃ ∼ 1.3 μs. We further demonstrate that a quenched effective triplet lifetime of τ₃ ∼ 1 μs, due to contamination by air, can be recovered in loop-mode purification to τ₃ ∼ 1.3 μs after > 20 volume exchanges.