X-ray scintillators possess the ability of converting high-energy X-ray to low-energy photons, which are widely used in medical diagnosis, security inspection, X-ray astronomy, and large scientific facilities.
The traditional scintillators (such as NaI:Tl、CsI:Tl, etc.) exhibit high light yield, but the broader application has been limited by their high preparation cost or poor adaptability to changeable environments. With the integrating advantages of structure designability, property tunability, mild synthesis process and radiation stability, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) materials have aroused wide research interest in radiation detection.
In a study published inChemical Engineering Journal, the research group led by Prof. GUO Guocong from Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (FJIRSM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed an MOF-based scintillating material for sensitive X-ray detection and imaging.
The researchers synthesized a new Pb-based metal-organic framework by a facile solvothermal method, which exhibits a bright green emission visible to the naked eyes under ultraviolet (UV) or X-ray irradiation.
They used the organic ligands with high luminous efficiency to serve as the photoemission functional motifs and the heavy inorganic metals with high X-ray attenuation efficiency to act as X-ray absorption functional motifs, and exerted the synergistic effect between inorganic and organic functional motifs in MOFs to obtain the X-ray responsive hybrid scintillation materials.
Besides, robust framework structure and strong C–H×××p stacking interactions endow it favorable hygroscopic hardness and radiation stability.
Taking advantage of the above comprehensive performance characteristics, the researchers prepared a flexible Pb-MOF polymer mixed matrix film as a scintillation screen to carry out the X-ray imaging experiment.
In the obtained radiographs, the researchers observed the clear internal structure of the experiment object, which achieved a relatively high spatial resolution of 5.5 lp mm–1.
This study provides an effective visualization tool for X-ray radiography and verifies the potential application of flexible MOF-based scintillator film for X-ray imaging.
Schematic Illustration of the Research (Image by Prof. GUO’s group)
Contact:
Prof. GUO Guocong
Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Email: gcguo@fjirsm.ac.cn
