Characterization of polysiloxane organic scintillators produced with different phenyl containing blends

Aiming at the fabrication of elastomeric organic scintillators for the detection of ionizing particles and neutrons with good light yield, mechanical robustness and radiation resistance, several samples of polysiloxane added with suitable amounts of fluorophores, such as 2,5-diphenyloxazole (PPO) and Lumogen Violet (LV), have been herein produced starting from either the copolymer polydiphenyldimethylsiloxane with 22 mol% of diphenyl groups or from blends of this precursor with different amounts of the homopolymer polymethylphenylsiloxane, thereby ultimately obtaining, after room temperature vulcanization (RTV), siloxane scintillators bearing different amounts of phenyl side groups. The scintillators have been characterized as for optical properties by excitation and fluorescence spectroscopy, while their performances as radiation detectors have been derived from light yield measurements upon irradiation with α particles. Ion beam-induced luminescence (IBIL) has been also applied using a proton beam of 2 MeV to compare the behavior of the different compositions by observing the in-situ degradation rate of the emitting species under ion irradiation. The samples and commercial scintillators (EJ-212 and EJ-200) used as a standard underwent heavy irradiation with γ-rays from a 60Co source at different doses, up to 54 kGy. Then, the ex-situ light yield toward α particles for each scintillator was collected twice again: immediately after the irradiation stage and after one month, in order to characterize the stability and the radiation hardness of scintillators produced with the different blends.

► Scintillators based on phenyl containing polysiloxane blends were synthesized.
► Scintillation yield stability and radiation hardness was analyzed.
► Scintillators with high scintillation yield and very stable even after 54 kGy of irradiation doese were obtained.