TY - JOUR
T1 - Blended poly (ether sulfone) and poly (ethylene naphthalate) as a scintillation material
AU - Nakamura, Hidehito
AU - Shirakawa, Yoshiyuki
AU - Sato, Nobuhiro
AU - Kitamura, Hisashi
AU - Takahashi, Sentaro
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Kyoto University and the National Institute of Radiological Sciences . The authors thank the KUR Research Program for the Scientific Basis of Nuclear Safety for partial support at this work. The authors are grateful to Dr. T. Murata, Dr. T. Fukunaga, Dr. H. Yamana, Mr. T. Yamada and Ms. M. Yasaku for their cooperation.
Copyright:
Copyright 2014 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2014/9/21
Y1 - 2014/9/21
N2 - The advantages of blending two aromatic ring polymers for use as a scintillation substrate for radiation detection have attracted considerable attention. Here, we have characterised the blending of poly (ether sulfone) (PES) and poly (ethylene naphthalate) (PEN), which have dissimilar repeat units. The blended substrate is a faint-amber-coloured resin, and its density is between that of PES and PEN (1.34 g/cm3). Its excitation spectrum has a maximum at 370 nm and differs from the component substrates. However, the emission spectrum is similar to that for PEN substrates, and does not exhibit short-wavelength light from the PES component, even when excited by the excitation maximum of PES. These results reveal that excitation energy is being transferred to a lower energy level before it is emitted as light, with a maximum at 420 nm. By taking into account its emission spectrum, an effective refractive index was determined to be 1.70. Light yield distributions generated by 137Cs and 207Bi radioactive sources indicated that the blended substrate had a yield 2.23 times that of PES, and 0.68 times that of PEN. Overall, the results demonstrate that polymer blends can have scintillation characteristics that differ in some ways from those of the base substrates, with a potential advantage in being able to control them.
AB - The advantages of blending two aromatic ring polymers for use as a scintillation substrate for radiation detection have attracted considerable attention. Here, we have characterised the blending of poly (ether sulfone) (PES) and poly (ethylene naphthalate) (PEN), which have dissimilar repeat units. The blended substrate is a faint-amber-coloured resin, and its density is between that of PES and PEN (1.34 g/cm3). Its excitation spectrum has a maximum at 370 nm and differs from the component substrates. However, the emission spectrum is similar to that for PEN substrates, and does not exhibit short-wavelength light from the PES component, even when excited by the excitation maximum of PES. These results reveal that excitation energy is being transferred to a lower energy level before it is emitted as light, with a maximum at 420 nm. By taking into account its emission spectrum, an effective refractive index was determined to be 1.70. Light yield distributions generated by 137Cs and 207Bi radioactive sources indicated that the blended substrate had a yield 2.23 times that of PES, and 0.68 times that of PEN. Overall, the results demonstrate that polymer blends can have scintillation characteristics that differ in some ways from those of the base substrates, with a potential advantage in being able to control them.
KW - Aromatic ring polymer
KW - Excitation and emission
KW - Light yield
KW - Polymer blend
KW - Refractive index
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U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2014.05.053
DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2014.05.053
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84901949920
SN - 0168-9002
VL - 759
SP - 1
EP - 5
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
ER -