Development of New Composite Scintillators Based on Poly(divinylbenzene) Aerogels with PPO and POPOP Dopants
Résumé
The detection of radioactivity is very important in many fields, such as energy production in nuclear power plants, medicine in diagnosis and treatment, customs inspection, homeland security. For γ-ray emitting isotopes such as 60Co and 137Cs, it is easy to measure and analyze radioactivity, and chemical separation from other radioisotopes is hardly required. On the other hand, low energy beta-ray emitters such as 3H, 14C, and 63Ni have low depth penetration, β-rays cannot penetrate a thick medium and this makes them difficult to analyze. Generally, low-energy X-rays have been measured in systems such as liquid scintillation counters and gas proportional counters, but this approach requires a long time for pretreatment and waste generated after the analysis is harmful to the environment. Recent rapid advances in organic matter and nanotechnology have brought attention to solid composite porous scintillators as an alternative approach. In this contribution we will report on the preparation and the characterization of highly transparent polydivinylbenzene (PDVB) aerogels with apparent porosity up to 40 % and surface area (BET) up to 650 m2/g doped with 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO) and 1,2-bis (5-phenyl-oxazolyl-2)-benzene (POPOP) fluorescent dyes.
Mots clés
instrumentation
radioactivity
ionizing radiation
gamma-rays
beta-rays
beta-ray emitter
3H
14C
63Ni
low X-rays
solid composite porous scintillator
detector
preparation
material characterisation
polydivinylbenzene (PDVB) aerogels
apparent porosity
doping
2
5-diphenyloxazole (PPO)
1
2-bis (5-phenyl-oxazolyl-2)-benzene (POPOP)