Posted on 12/28/2024 3:51:00 PM PST by BenLurkin
Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a highly effective and general molecular design that enables an enhancement in radioluminescence within organometallic scintillators by more than three orders of magnitude. This enhancement harnesses X-ray-induced triplet exciton recycling within lanthanide metal complexes.
Detection of ionizing radiation is crucial in diverse fields, such as medical radiography, environmental monitoring and astronomy. As a result, significant efforts have been dedicated to the development of luminescent materials that respond to X-rays.
However, current high-performance scintillators are almost exclusively limited to ceramic and perovskite materials, which face issues such as complex manufacturing processes, environmental toxicity, self-absorption and stability problems.
Organic phosphors present a promising alternative owing to their flexibility and cost-effectiveness. However, they are less efficient in X-ray detection because of weak X-ray absorption and limited use of molecular triplet excitons.
A research team led by Professor Liu Xiaogang from the Department of Chemistry at NUS, leveraged rare-earth X–ray absorption and ligand-mediated triplet exciton harvesting to overcome these challenges and significantly improved the performance of molecular scintillators.
The effective trapping of the energy dissipated during secondary X-ray relaxation via organic ligands led to a remarkable 1,300-fold increase in radioluminescence compared to lanthanide salts.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Will individual finally get a flashlight that holds up?
“Will I”?
If I start a rock band, I will name it “scintillator”.
And our first album will be called “radioluminescence”.
This is quite a breakthrough.
Especially for high throughput screening.
It was luminosity that led to the discovery of x-rays. Röntgen noticed a glow from a nearby screen while testing cathode rays. He named the rays X-rays because their nature was unknown.
Well, that ups the anti on radiation detection. Thanks for posting that.
Now I can sleep at night. It was a concern…
and if you use these novel molecules on the album cover I will buy as many albums as I can to replace the “happy shining people holding hands” records I gifted friends with when I lived in an “alternate” universe.
Or radioligand therapy. Possibly much lower doses of radiation. Maybe more aggressive treatment with less collateral damage.
Somehow it will end up in the porn industry
Wow!
This sounds awesome...
Physicists will be overjoyed...
Maybe a lot of sigma-6 experimental results can be cleaned up to sigma-3...
The improvement is only over other (horribly inefficient) orgaometallic scintillators. Classical inorganic scintillators are probably still orders of magnitude better still.
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