Influence of bismuth loading in polystyrene-based plastic scintillators for low energy gamma spectroscopy

Abstract

This article presents the synthesis and the blend of bismuth complexes in polystyrene based plastic scintillators. A specific design has enabled the fabrication of a scintillator loaded with up to 17 wt% of bismuth. Tri-carboxylate and triaryl bismuth compounds were used to explore and understand the influence of bismuth loading on the two main criteria of plastic scintillation: light yield and detection efficiency of g-rays. For gamma radiation with an energy <200 keV, bismuth loaded scintillators demonstrate the ability to produce a photoelectric peak (total absorption peak) in pulse height spectra.The increase of interactions due to bismuth doping was quantified and fitted with standard models.Finally the performance of our bismuth loaded scintillators was evaluated to be better than that of a commercial lead loaded counterpart.

Understanding the behaviour of different metals in loaded scintillators: discrepancy between gadolinium and bismuth

“…Based on our previous work with organometallics, we decided to use Gd(TMHD) 3 (Scheme 1) as the gadolinium source for PS loading. 24 We decided to investigate this fluorescence quenching in order to find a way to minimize it. It is composed of styrene, copolymerized with a curing agent, and PPO and bis-MSB, which are primary and secondary fluorophores respectively.…”

Plastic scintillators modifications for a selective radiation detection

“…Concerning gamma-rays identification, the best results are obtained with bismuth(III) organometallics as dopants. Triphenyl bismuth, triaryl [10,11] and tricarboxyl bismuth complexes [10,12] have been reported. With such loading, the apparition of the photoelectric peak was observed for high energy X-rays and gamma below 200 keV, as well as in synchrotron conditions [13] by several groups around the world.…”

Bismuth- and lithium-loaded plastic scintillators for gamma and neutron detection

“…However, difficulties due to poor solubility of the high-Z component, its quenching of radioluminescence due to spin-orbit coupling, and decomposition of the high-Z compound into brown-colored products during polymerization make formulating an effective gamma spectroscopy plastic challenging. In our previous work, we described plastics based on polyvinylcarbazole (PVK) loaded with up to 40 wt% triphenyl bismuth (BiPh 3 ), corresponding to 19 wt% bismuth metal, providing light yields of up to 30,000 Ph/MeV and with energy resolution R(662 keV) < 7% [9,10]. An alternative class of bismuth compounds with high solubility in non-polar organics is explored in this paper is bismuth Figure 1.…”

“…Bismuth and lithium pivalate chemical structures reveal the features highly soluble, capable of high metal plastic dispersions. First, the t-butyl tail of the ligand is Second, the carboxylate moiety strongly bonds the metal center, making it resistant to hyd The overall molecular weight of these complexes is also minimized, carboxylates, allowing high fractional Organic scintillators interact with neutrons efficiently via proton recoil from 4-20 barns in the 0.01-1 MeV range formulations (certain liquids, plastics and single crystals) offer permitting discrimination between Introduction of 6 Li into plastic scintillators provide neutron capture, and a higher Q value compared to other options such as 10 is the bismuth carboxylates, and the carboxylate explored in this paper is bismuth tripivalate (Figure 1).…”