Scintillating science: Researchers improve materials for radiation
detection and imaging technology

Date:
May 8, 2023
Source:
Florida State University
Summary:
A team of researchers has improved a new generation of
organic-inorganic hybrid materials that can improve image quality
in X-ray machines, CT scans and other radiation detection and
imaging technologies.


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FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team of Florida State University researchers has further developed a
new generation of organic-inorganic hybrid materials that can improve
image quality in X-ray machines, CT scans and other radiation detection
and imaging technologies.

Professor Biwu Ma from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and
his colleagues have developed a new class of materials that can act as
highly efficient scintillators, which emit light after being exposed to
other forms of high energy radiations, such as X-rays.

The team's most recent study, published in Advanced Materials,
is an improvement upon their previous research to develop better
scintillators. The new design concept produces materials that can emit
light within nanoseconds, orders of magnitude faster than previously
developed materials, allowing for better imaging.

"Reducing the radioluminescence decay lifetime of scintillators to
nanoseconds is an important breakthrough," Ma said. "Using a hybrid
material made up of both organic and inorganic components means
each component can be used for the part of the process where it
is most effective." Scintillators are used in all sorts of imaging applications. Health care settings, security X-rays, radiation detectors
and other technologies use them and would benefit from better image
quality.

The new generation of organic metal halide hybrid scintillators developed
by Ma's team has numerous improvements over existing ones. In addition
to significantly better radioluminescence response, the manufacturing
process is simpler than the process used for other scintillators, and
it uses abundant and cheap materials.

Think of a scintillator as a sort of translator between two types of
energy, taking a form of high energy radiation, such as an X-ray, and converting it into visible light. Less radiation passes through denser
parts of an object, and that difference can be used to distinguish higher-density objects, such as bones or metal, from lower-density ones,
such as soft tissue. The radiation that passes through an object then
interacts with the scintillator, which generates visible light that is
detected by a sensor to make an image.

Today's scintillators use mainly inorganic materials to transform high
energy radiation into visible light for producing images. These materials
are rigid, use rare Earth elements, and require energy-consuming, high-temperature manufacturing processes.

Ma and his team have been working on zero-dimensional organic metal
halide hybrids, with which they have performed pioneering research
since 2018. These organic-inorganic hybrids are made of small groups of negatively charged inorganic components, called metal halide clusters,
and positively charged organic molecules. They're "zero-dimensional" at
the molecular level because the metal halide clusters are fully isolated
and surrounded by organic molecules.

In the first version of scintillators based on this material, the metal
halides absorb high energy radiation and emit visible light. In this
latest iteration, metal halide components and organic molecules work
together. The metal halides absorb high energy radiation and transfer
energy to the organic components, which emit visible light.

Light emissions from organic molecules take place on the scale of
nanoseconds, much faster than the microseconds or milliseconds required
for metal halides to emit light.

"The faster the decay of radioluminescence, the more precise we can
measure the timing of photon emissions," Ma said. "That leads to higher resolution and contrast in images." With the help of the FSU Office
of Commercialization, Ma and his team have filed patents on organic
metal halide hybrid scintillators. The office's GAP Commercialization Investment Program provided funding to develop the technology for
potential partnerships with private companies, which would make the scintillators available on a wider scale.

"This is a continuation of our push for better materials over the years,
from 2018, when we first discovered this class of materials, to 2020,
when we used them for scintillation for the first time," Ma said. "This
is another major breakthrough." This study was supported by the National Science Foundation and Florida State University.

This paper's first author was FSU graduate student Tunde Blessed
Shonde. Other co-authors were Maya Chaaban, He Liu, Oluwadara Joshua
Olasupo, Azza Ben- Akacha, Fabiola G. Gonzalez, Kerri Julevich, Xinsong
Lin, J. S. Raaj Vellore Winfred, all from FSU, and Luis M. Stand and
Mariya Zhuravleva from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Florida_State_University. Original
written by Bill Wellock. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Tunde Blessed Shonde, Maya Chaaban, He Liu, Oluwadara Joshua
Olasupo,
Azza Ben‐Akacha, Fabiola G. Gonzalez, Kerri Julevich, Xinsong
Lin, J. S. Raaj Vellore Winfred, Luis M. Stand, Mariya Zhuravleva,
Biwu Ma.

Molecular Sensitization Enabled High Performance Organic Metal
Halide Hybrid Scintillator. Advanced Materials, 2023; DOI: 10.1002/
adma.202301612 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230508150929.htm

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