Speaker
Description
The detection of ionizing radiation is of eminent importance in various branches of science like in medicine, environmental monitoring, high energy physics and border security technologies, among others. The development of alternative systems for radiation detection that present versatility of applications, of easy production and manipulation with viable costs has been the focus of many recent studies in the nuclear sciences, among those the neutron detection field is one of great importance, since the main system to detect these particles is still based on helium 3, which is scarcely available, and its availability has progressively been decreased over time. Organic plastic scintillators are a viable alternative, as they are relatively easy to produce and can be manufactured in large sizes and formats. Mostly, Plastic scintillators presents several advantages over liquids or crystal, as they are more versatile than crystals, easier to produce and lower costs and much lower toxicity then the liquids. This work presents the study and development of plastic scintillators with application in the detection of fast and thermal neutrons. In this work the production of plastic scintillators with pulse shape discrimination capabilities are carried out, and finally the incorporation of different compounds containing Boron into the scintillator matrix is attempted using homogeneous and heterogeneous methods. Some preliminary results of this development are presented in this work.
