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With the exception of BF<jats:sub>3<\/jats:sub>, which is toxic, no other gas can be used for neutron detection in proportional counters. We present an alternative where the <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>He atoms are replaced by nanoparticles made of another neutron sensitive material, <jats:sup>10<\/jats:sup>B. The particles are dispersed in a gaseous volume, forming an aerosol with neutron sensitive properties. A proportional counter filled with such aerosol was exposed to a thermal neutron beam and the recorded response indicates that the neutrons have interacted with the particles in the aerosol. This original technique, which transforms a standard proportional gas mixture into a neutron sensitive aerosol, is a breakthrough in the field of radiation detection and has the potential to become an alternative to the use of <jats:sup>3<\/jats:sup>He in proportional counters.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/srep41699","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,2,9]],"date-time":"2017-02-09T10:22:32Z","timestamp":1486635752000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Novel concept for neutron detection: proportional counter filled with 10B nanoparticle aerosol"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"F. D.","family":"Amaro","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"C. M. B.","family":"Monteiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"J. M. 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The error has not been fixed in the paper.","order":6,"name":"change_details","label":"Change Details","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"12 February 2018","order":7,"name":"change_date","label":"Change Date","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"Erratum","order":8,"name":"change_type","label":"Change Type","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"Scientific Reports 7: Article number: 41699; published online: 09 February 2017; updated: 12 February 2018 The Acknowledgements section in this Article is incomplete. \u201cF.D.A. and C.M.B.M. acknowledge the support of FCT, under contracts SFRH\/BPD\/74775\/2010 and SFRH\/BPD\/76842\/2011, respectively. We acknowledge R.","order":9,"name":"change_details","label":"Change Details","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing financial interests.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"41699"}}