Ultraviolet plastic scintillators based on naphthalene-doped polystyrene and polyvinyltoluene

TL;DR

This study develops ultraviolet-emitting plastic scintillators using polystyrene and polyvinyltoluene doped with naphthalene, showing enhanced emission, faster decay times, and improved radiation tolerance, making them promising for compact detectors.

Contribution

It introduces naphthalene doping in polystyrene and polyvinyltoluene scintillators, demonstrating enhanced UV emission and radiation resistance compared to undoped counterparts.

Findings

Naphthalene enhances emission intensity and causes a red shift in polystyrene.

Naph-doped polyvinyltoluene shows bimodal emission peaks around 335 and 350 nm.

Naph doping improves radiation tolerance, especially in PVT, retaining more light yield after irradiation.

Abstract

This work reports the fabrication and optical characterization of ultraviolet-emitting plastic scintillators based on polystyrene [-(CH2-CH(C6H5))n-] and polyvinyltoluene [-(CH2-CH(C6H4CH3))n-] doped with different concentrations of naphthalene (Naph). Photoluminescence (PL) measurements show that Naph incorporation enhances the emission intensity, inducing a red shift in the emission wavelength of the polystyrene (PS), while Naph-doped polyvinyltoluene (PVT) exhibits a bimodal emission with peaks around 335 and 350 nm. Time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) reveals fast decay components for the undoped matrices and a dominant slow component of approximately 87 ns in the doped samples. Scintillation light yield measurements indicate moderate performance for the undoped polymers and a significant enhancement upon Naph doping. Proton irradiation experiments reveal a reduction in light yield for all samples, with Naph-doped PVT retaining a larger fraction of its initial light yield compared to PS-based scintillators, indicating improved radiation tolerance. Overall, these results demonstrate the effectiveness of Naph as a UV emission enhancer and highlight Naph-doped PVT as a promising candidate for compact and radiation-resistant scintillation detectors.