Undoped poly (phenyl sulfone) for radiation detection

•Poly (phenyl sulfone) (PPSU) has suitable characteristics as a scintillation material.•PPSU is an amber-coloured transparent resin that emits bluish white fluorescence with 390-nm maximum.•The 1.75 effective refractive index over the emission spectrum is relatively high.•The light yield is 0.95 times that of poly (ethylene terephthalate), which is a transparent resin.•PPSU can potentially alter optical characteristics in polymer blends.

Undoped aromatic ring polymers are potential scintillation materials. Here, we characterise poly (phenyl sulfone) (PPSU) for radiation detection. The amber-coloured transparent resin emits bluish-white fluorescence with 390-nm maximum. It has an excitation maximum of 340 nm, and has a density of 1.29 g/cm3. The effective refractive index based on its emission spectrum is 1.75. The light yield is almost equal to that of poly (ethylene terephthalate), which is a transparent resin. These results demonstrate that PPSU can be used as a component substrate in polymer blends for altering optical characteristics.