Speaker
Description
Scintillation is the phenomenon of luminescence in solids, liquids or gases, originating at the propagation of the ionizing radiation through them. It has long found applications in radiation detection and dosimetry. Currently, most commercial scintillators are inorganic compounds. They exhibit excellent scintillation properties, but suffer from harsh fabrication conditions, high costs and sensitivity to humidity and oxygen. Organic scintillators have also attracted significant attention as they have abundant source materials, ease of processing, low cost and mechanical flexibility. However, they usually give less light output and have weaker interaction with X-rays and gamma rays than inorganic scintillators, so they can be less efficient for high-energy photon detection. Thus, in order to improve these aspects, here we report the creation of hybrid composite nanofibers, combining strong scintillator nanoparticles (anthracene: C14H10) and BaF2 incorporated into a polymer matrix of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), produced by electrospinning. The aim is to combine the strong scintillation response of the organic and inorganic phase with the sustainability, biocompatibility and mechanical flexibility of the host polymer. Their structural, chemical, mechanical, dielectric and optical properties were characterized.
The results show that the nanofibers have a homogeneous surface morphology, and average diameters around 734nm for C14H10 and 1371,9 nm for BaF2. The successful inclusion of the C14H10 and BaF2 particles inside the fibers was observed by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and Infrared spectroscopy. The optical and luminescent properties show absorption peaks from 293nm to 375nm, and emission from 379nm to 479nm with respect to the anthracene. The diffuse reflectance results show that the composite nanofibers exhibit two different transitions resulting from PET and C14H10 contribution, with band gap estimated at PET = 3.86 eV and C14H10= 2.86 eV respectively. The further influence of the anthracene and BaF2 on the fiber’s properties will be presented.
Key words: Nanofibers, scintillators, electrospinning, radiation detection
| Which topic best fits your talk? | Condensed Matter Physics and Nanomaterials |
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| Affiliations | Center of Physics of the Universities of Minho and Porto (CF-UM-UP), Laboratory for Materials and Emergent Technologies (LAPMET), Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal |