title: Synthesis of bulk-size transparent gadolinium oxide-polymer nanocomposites for gamma ray spectroscopy.
abstract: Heavy element loaded polymer composites have long been proposed to detect high energy X- and γ-rays upon scintillation. The previously reported bulk composite scintillators have achieved limited success because of the diminished light output resulting from fluorescence quenching and opacity. We demonstrate the synthesis of a transparent nanocomposite comprising gadolinium oxide nanocrystals uniformly dispersed in bulk-size samples at a high loading content. The strategy to avoid luminescence quenching and opacity in the nanocomposite was successfully deployed, which led to the radioluminescence light yield of up to 27 000/MeV, about twice as much as standard commercial plastic scintillators. Nanocomposites monoliths (14 mm diameter by 3 mm thickness) with 31 wt% loading of nanocrystals generated a photoelectric peak for Cs-137 gamma (662 keV) with 11.4% energy resolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1595, USA. Tel: +1 310 825 4127 ; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1595, USA. Tel: +1 310 825 4127.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
authors.forename: Nerine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cherepy
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1595, USA.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dooraghi
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1595, USA. Tel: +1 310 825 4127.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kishpaugh
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1595, USA.
authors.forename: Arion
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chatziioannou
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China.
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1595, USA. Tel: +1 310 825 4127.
authors.forename: Qibing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Pei