Preparation and performance of plastic scintillators with copper iodide complex-loaded for radiation detection

The development of plastic scintillators loaded with low-cost phosphorescent sensitizer is currently an important topic toward enhancing the scintillation light yield for radiation detection applications. In this work, we report plastic scintillators loaded with deep-blue-emitting phosphorescent sensitizer CuI(PPh3)2(t-BuPy), where PPh3 and t-BuPy stand for triphenylphosphine and 4-tert-butylpyridine, respectively. CuI(PPh3)2(t-BuPy)-loaded poly(vinyltoluene)-based plastic scintillators with high optical transmittance of over 80% were synthesized via bulk polymerization method. The optical absorption, photoluminescence spectra, decay kinetics, and scintillation performance under X-ray, γ-ray, and α-particle excitation were comprehensively investigated. The scintillation yield was reduced with the increase of CuI(PPh3)2(t-BuPy) loading concentration. The physical mechanism and the role of the copper iodide complex in scintillation yield reduction are proposed.