A system to test the effect of materials on electron drift lifetime in liquid argon and the effect of water

A materials test system (MTS) has been developed at FNAL to assess the suitability of materials for use in a large liquid argon time projection chamber. During development of the MTS, it was noted that controlling the cryostat pressure with a ‘raining’ condenser reduced the electron drift lifetime in the liquid argon. The effect of condensing has been investigated using a series of passive materials to filter the condensate. We report the results of these studies and of tests on different candidate materials for detector construction. The inferred reduction of electron drift lifetime by water concentrations in the parts per trillion is of particular interest.