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Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic molecules for efficient X-ray scintillation and imaging.

Authors :
Ma W
Su Y
Zhang Q
Deng C
Pasquali L
Zhu W
Tian Y
Ran P
Chen Z
Yang G
Liang G
Liu T
Zhu H
Huang P
Zhong H
Wang K
Peng S
Xia J
Liu H
Liu X
Yang YM
Source :
Nature materials [Nat Mater] 2022 Feb; Vol. 21 (2), pp. 210-216. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Nov 11.
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

X-ray detection, which plays an important role in medical and industrial fields, usually relies on inorganic scintillators to convert X-rays to visible photons; although several high-quantum-yield fluorescent molecules have been tested as scintillators, they are generally less efficient. High-energy radiation can ionize molecules and create secondary electrons and ions. As a result, a high fraction of triplet states is generated, which act as scintillation loss channels. Here we found that X-ray-induced triplet excitons can be exploited for emission through very rapid, thermally activated up-conversion. We report scintillators based on three thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules with different emission bands, which showed significantly higher efficiency than conventional anthracene-based scintillators. X-ray imaging with 16.6 line pairs mm <superscript>-1</superscript> resolution was also demonstrated. These results highlight the importance of efficient and prompt harvesting of triplet excitons for efficient X-ray scintillation and radiation detection.<br /> (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1476-4660
Volume :
21
Issue :
2
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Nature materials
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
34764429
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-01132-x