A different approach to fabricate nanocrystalline LTB:Cu pellets with thermoluminescence response

• LTB is synthesized by three methods of high-temperature solid state, wet and combustion reaction.
• Adding Cu to LTBs caused the highest TL sensitivity.
• LTB synthesized by combustion method had the best TL responses and glow peak at the low-doses.

In this study, lithium-tetraborate (LTB) was synthesized by three methods of high-temperature solid state, wet and combustion reactions. Copper was added to pure LTB by solution assisted method, to improve the thermoluminescence (TL) properties. The pellets of LTB were produced using pressing and sintering operations at 850 °C. The synthesized LTB pellets, exposed to the gamma radiation of 60Co source in the dose range of 5–20Gy and glow curves as well as dose–response diagrams were obtained. Ultimately, the effects of different factors on TL behaviors like dopant, crystallite size and particle morphologies were studied. The results show that between pure samples, LTB which synthesized by combustion method has higher TL sensitivity than those of other methods. However, it was seen a weak glow peak for 5Gy, due to the nanocrystalline structure of LTB. This property led to decrease TL intensity at low-doses and postponed saturation at high-doses. Fading of this sample was also less than others and has relatively better reproducibility. Among LTB:Cu pellets which synthesized by the wet reaction showed the higher TL response than others due to the creation of more traps and luminescence centers and had promising properties in the case of dose response linearity and fading.