# Water-dispersible X-ray scintillators enabling coating and blending with polymer materials for multiple applications

## TL;DR

Researchers developed water-dispersible X-ray scintillators that can be blended with polymers for flexible and multifunctional applications like imaging and encryption.

## Contribution

A new water-dispersible X-ray scintillator material based on Tb3+-doped Na5Lu9F32 anchored on halloysite nanotubes is introduced.

## Key findings

- The material shows high X-ray light yields of 15,800 photons MeV−1 and good water-dispersibility.
- It can be used to create composite foam materials with dose-dependent radioluminescence for radiation monitoring.
- The scintillator enables information encryption where encrypted data is revealed only under X-ray irradiation.

## Abstract

Developing X-ray scintillators that are water-dispersible, compatible with polymeric matrices, and processable to flexible substrates is an important challenge. Herein, Tb3+-doped Na5Lu9F32 is introduced as an X-ray scintillating material with steady-state X-ray light yields of 15,800 photons MeV−1, which is generated as nanocrystals on halloysite nanotubes. The obtained product exhibits good water-dispersibility and highly sensitive luminescence to X-rays. It is deposited onto a polyurethane foam to afford a composite foam material with dose-dependent radioluminescence. Moreover, the product is dispersed into polymer matrixes in aqueous solution to prepare rigid or flexible scintillator screen for X-ray imaging. As a third example, it is incorporated multilayer hydrogels for information camouflage and multilevel encryption. Encrypted information can be recognized only by X-ray irradiation, while the false information is read out under UV light. Altogether, we demonstrate that the water-dispersible scintillators are highly promising for aqueous processing of radioluminescent, X-ray imaging, and information encrypting materials.

Water dispersible X-ray scintillators are highly desirable for multiple application scenarios. Zhang et al report the synthesis of new X-ray scintillator nanocrystals anchored on the surface of water dispersible halloysite nanotubes, enabling radiation exposure monitoring, flexible scintillator screens, and information encryption.