Extreme γ-ray radiation hardness and high scintillation yield in perovskite nanocrystals

Matteo Zaffalon^a, Francesca Cova^a^,^b, Mingming Liu^c, Alessia Cemmi^d, Ilaria Di Sarcina^d, Francesca Rossi^e, Francesco Carulli^a, Andrea Erroi^a, Carmelita Rodà^a, Jacopo Perego^a, Angiolina Comotti^a, Mauro Fasoli^a^,^b, Francesco Meinardi^a, Liang Li^f, Anna Vedda^a^,^b, Sergio Brovelli^a

^aDipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali, Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, 20125 Milano, Italy

^bIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.

^cSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

^dENEA Fusion and Technology for Nuclear Safety and Security Department, Casaccia R.C., Rome, Italy.

^eIMEM-CNR Institute, Parma, Italy.

^fMacao Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (MIMSE), Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, China.

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of MATSUS23 & Sustainable Technology Forum València (STECH23) (MATSUS23)

#PerFut - Metal Halide Perovskites Fundamental Approaches and Technological Challenges

VALÈNCIA, Spain, 2023 March 6th - 10th

Organizers: Wang Feng, Giulia Grancini and Pablo P. Boix

Oral, Matteo Zaffalon, presentation 136
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2023.136
Publication date: 22nd December 2022

Radiation detection is of utmost importance in fundamental scientific research, as well as medical diagnostics, homeland security, environmental monitoring and industrial control [1]. Lead halide perovskites (LHPs) are attracting growing attention as high-atomic-number materials for next-generation scintillators and photoconductors for ionizing radiation detection. To unlock their full potential as reliable and cost-effective alternatives to conventional materials [2], it is necessary for LHPs to conjugate high scintillation yields with emission stability under high doses of ionizing radiation. To date, no definitive solution has been devised to optimize the scintillation efficiency and kinetics of LHPs and nothing is known of their radiation hardness for doses above a few kiloGrays, to the best of our knowledge. Here we demonstrate that CsPbBr3 nanocrystals exhibit exceptional radiation hardness for γ-radiation doses as high as 1 MGy [3]. Spectroscopic and radiometric experiments highlight that despite their defect tolerance, standard CsPbBr3 nanocrystals suffer from electron trapping in dense surface effects that are eliminated by post-synthesis fluorination. This results in >500% enhancement in scintillation efficiency, which becomes comparable to commercial scintillators, and still retaining exceptional levels of radiation hardness. These results have important implications for the widespread use of LHPs in ultrastable and efficient radiation detectors for strategic applications such as national and industrial security, high-energy physics and nuclear power plant control, from space exploration to medical imaging diagnostics such as CT and PET.

References:

[1] Gandini, M.; Villa, I.; Beretta, M.; Gotti, C.; Imran, M.; Carulli, F.; Fantuzzi, E.; Sassi, M.; Zaffalon, M.; Brofferio, C.; Manna, L.; Beverina, L.; Vedda, A.; Fasoli, M.; Gironi, L.; Brovelli, S. Efficient, Fast and Reabsorption-Free Perovskite Nanocrystal-Based Sensitized Plastic Scintillators. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2020, 15 (6), 462–468

[2] Chen, Q.; Wu, J.; Ou, X.; Huang, B.; Almutlaq, J.; Zhumekenov, A. A.; Guan, X.; Han, S.; Liang, L.; Yi, Z.; Li, J.; Xie, X.; Wang, Y.; Li, Y.; Fan, D.; Teh, D. B. L.; All, A. H.; Mohammed, O. F.; Bakr, O. M.; Wu, T.; Bettinelli, M.; Yang, H.; Huang, W.; Liu, X. All-Inorganic Perovskite Nanocrystal Scintillators. Nature 2018, 561 (7721), 88–93

[3] Zaffalon, M. L.; Cova, F.; Liu, M.; Cemmi, A.; Di Sarcina, I.; Rossi, F.; Carulli, F.; Erroi, A.; Rodà, C.; Perego, J.; Comotti, A.; Fasoli, M.; Meinardi, F.; Li, L.; Vedda, A.; Brovelli, S. Extreme γ-Ray Radiation Hardness and High Scintillation Yield in Perovskite Nanocrystals. Nat. Photonics 2022, 16 (12), 860–868

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