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Printable ionizing radiation sensors fabricated from nanoparticulate blends of organic scintillators and polymer semiconductors

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Abstract

This work established the feasibility of flexible solution-processed radiation sensors prepared from an organic scintillator (1-phenyl-3-mesityl-2-pyrazoline) and a biocompatible semiconducting polymer (violanthrone-79). Absorbance, steady-state, and time-resolved photolumines-cence measurements demonstrated a high efficiency for the transfer of absorbed energy from the scintillator to the semiconductor. Blended nanoparticles containing both materials were fabricated in order to reduce the intermolecular distance between molecules, creating a highly efficient energy transfer pathway. Radiation-sensing devices were then constructed from the materials. These exhibited successful sensitivity for gamma radiation from a 137Cs source that was not present for the control semiconducting polymer alone.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for this work through the University of Newcastle Strategic Investment Award (10.23285) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Dr. Yun Lin and the University of Newcastle Electron Microscopy and X-ray Unit for technical assistance with electron microscopy measurements. This work was performed in part at the Materials node (Newcastle) of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF), which is a company established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy to provide nanoand microfabrication facilities for Australia’s researchers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Darcie Anderson, Sophie Cottam & Matthew J. Griffith

  2. Centre for Organic Electronics, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

    Sophie Cottam, Heidianne Heim, Natalie P. Holmes & Matthew J. Griffith

  3. School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia

    Huiming Zhang

Authors
  1. Darcie Anderson
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  2. Sophie Cottam
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  3. Heidianne Heim
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  4. Huiming Zhang
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  5. Natalie P. Holmes
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  6. Matthew J. Griffith
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew J. Griffith.

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The supplementary material for this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.132.

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Anderson, D., Cottam, S., Heim, H. et al. Printable ionizing radiation sensors fabricated from nanoparticulate blends of organic scintillators and polymer semiconductors. MRS Communications 9, 1206–1213 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.132

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.132

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