Dedicated to Professor Andre¬ M. Braun on the occasion of his 60th birthday Liquid hydrotropic systems, i.e., mixtures of hydrotropes and water-forming hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions, allow the solubilization of organic scintillators in essentially aqueous media. Such systems were applied to liquid scintillation counting with 4-[4-(5-phenyloxazol-2-yl)benzyl]morpholine as scintillator, a 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO) derivative that proved well-soluble in acidic hydrotrope systems. Its fluorescence properties were studied. Phenylalanine labeled with 3 H or 14 C was used to test counting. While 14 C counting worked acceptably, 3 H counting was comparatively inefficient, probably due to the short lifetime of b-particles in aqueous environments.Introduction. ± The conversion of the energy of b-particles (emitted upon radioactive decay of unstable isotopes) to a corresponding number of fluorescence quanta is known as scintillation. Through collisions, the particles promote nearby atoms or molecules to electronically excited states capable of emitting fluorescence. The number of excited states generated depends on the energy of the b-particles, i.e., on the decaying isotope. Since its first description, the phenomenon of scintillation was readily exploited for detection, counting, and identification of radioactive radiation [1]. Meanwhile common is the use of solid scintillator systems, such as inorganic materials like thallium-doped NaI [2 ± 4], cerium-doped yttrium silicate [5 ± 7], solid noble gases [8], and organic materials like 2,5-bis(2-benzoxazolyl)phenol in polystyrene [9], 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO) and 1,4-bis(2-methylstyryl)benzene (bis-MSB) in paraffin [10] [11]. Liquid scintillation systems such as PPO and 1,4-bis(5-phenyloxazol-2-yl)benzene (POPOP) in aromatic organic solvents [12 ± 14] are used as well. The latter systems commonly contain surfactants in order to form microemulsions, when water has to be taken up that is present in biological and medical samples containing radioactively marked substances in aqueous solution.In this method (called liquid scintillation counting, LSC), b-particles initially produce excited solvent molecules (e.g., benzene, toluene, liquid naphthalene derivatives), the excitation energy of which is transferred to (primary and secondary) scintillators, which then emit fluorescence pulses. LSC is superior in the detection of weak b-radiation from 3 H (tritium) or 14 C decays. Liquid scintillation counters and a great number of suitable scintillator solutions (cocktails) are commercially available. Although developed to almost perfect performance, there is one drawback of this technique, which results from the necessity of treating the waste, i.e., weakly radioactive organic liquids are left, whose disposal is problematic.