Applications of fluorene moiety containing polymers for improved scintillation light yield

A terfluorene compound, designed and synthesized for its photophysical and polymerizable properties, was employed as a host material in polymer scintillators to achieve a 31% increase in light yield versus a commercial standard viewed with a Silicon Photomultilier. Monomers of the compound were mixed with a solubility promoting vinyl toluene and either a commercial or custom designed fluor containing fluorene moiety structures. Fluors were chosen with overlapping energy levels to promote resonance energy transfer from the host material and improve light emission. The mixture was cured via bulk polymerization into cylindrical polymer monoliths which were coupled to either a photomultiplier tube or silicon photomultiplier to measure the scintillation light yield upon exposure to Cs-137 gamma. Samples emitted at longer wavelengths than commercial blue scintillators such as EJ-212 but outperformed this standard when accounting for the variability of photomultiplier tube sensitivity.