Molecular Sensitization Enabled High Performance Organic Metal Halide Hybrid Scintillator

Abstract

Scintillators, one of the essential components in medical imaging and security checking devices, rely heavily on rare‐earth‐containing inorganic materials. Here, a new type of organic‐inorganic hybrid scintillators containing earth abundant elements that can be prepared via low‐temperature processes is reported. With room temperature co‐crystallization of an aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) organic halide, 4‐(4‐(diphenylamino) phenyl)‐1‐(propyl)‐pyrindin‐1ium bromide (TPA‐PBr), and a metal halide, zinc bromide (ZnBr2), a zero‐dimensional (0D) organic metal halide hybrid (TPA‐P)2ZnBr4 with a yellowish‐green emission peaked at 550 nm has been developed. In this hybrid material, dramatically enhanced X‐ray scintillation of TPA‐P+ is achieved via the sensitization by ZnBr42−. The absolute light yield (14,700 ± 800 Photons/MeV) of (TPA‐P)2ZnBr4 is found to be higher than that of anthracene (≈13,500 Photons/MeV), a well‐known organic scintillator, while its X‐ray absorption is comparable to those of inorganic scintillators. With TPA‐P+ as an emitting center, short photoluminescence and radioluminescence decay lifetimes of 3.56 and 9.96 ns have been achieved. Taking the advantages of high X‐ray absorption of metal halides and efficient radioluminescence with short decay lifetimes of organic cations, the material design paves a new pathway to address the issues of low X‐ray absorption of organic scintillators and long decay lifetimes of inorganic scintillators simultaneously.

One-Dimensional CsCu2I3 Single-Crystal X-ray Detectors

“…Hence, some prerequisites need to be fulfilled for suitable semiconductors to serve as high-performance X-ray detectors. First, a high average atomic number and high mass density lead to a large stopping power for successfully detecting X-rays . Besides, the carrier mobility–lifetime (μτ) product is another important factor for suitable semiconductors when applied to radiation detection .…”

Promoting the formation of metal–carboxylate coordination to modulate the dimensionality of ultrastable lead halide hybrids

“…16 For example, incorporating organoammonium cations with large molecular size and high rigidity oen leads to the formation of low-dimensional lead halide hybrids. [17][18][19] In addition, a commonly employed approach involves varying synthesis conditions such as precursor ratios, temperatures and solvents, which oen serendipitously result in the formation of lead halide hybrids with different dimensionalities. [20][21][22][23][24] More recently, the inclusion of guest molecules (e.g.…”

Aggregation-induced emission organic metal halide complex for X-ray scintillation

“…X-ray and other forms of high-energy radiation are of great importance in numerous fields, including medical diagnosis and treatment, space exploration, non-destructive product inspection, pulsar navigation, and so on. 1–9 Scintillators, capable of converting these ionizing radiations to ultraviolet (UV)-visible light, find widespread use in radiation detection and imaging. 10–14 To date, the most commonly used scintillators are based on inorganic crystals, e.g.…”

“…12,18–20 However, their low radiation hardness, poor thermal stability, and most importantly, their weak radiation attenuation and low scintillation light yield prevent a widespread use of these predominately carbon-based scintillators. 1,12 Developing new types of scintillation materials that combine the advantages of inorganic and organic scintillators has been one of the major focuses for the researchers In the field. 1,19,21…”