Gleaming Uranium: An Emerging Emitter for Building X‐ray Scintillators

Abstract

Scintillators are a unique class of luminescent materials with specific applications towards radiation detection. The emitters within state‐of‐the‐art scintillators are mostly limited to bismuth, cerium, europium, thallium, lead, tungsten, etc. A shared feature of these elements is the relatively high atomic number, which is responsible for high radiation stopping power and radiation‐induced luminescence. Searching for new scintillating materials is an essential target aiming at specific applications. In this Concept article, we will discuss our recent works on the topic of “uranyl‐bearing scintillators”. As a virgin territory in this field, uranyl‐bearing scintillators show intrinsic merits for designing new materials with X‐ray detection capability, that is, the large photoelectric cross‐section, high X‐ray attenuation efficiency, and high crystal density. In addition, we also present challenges in the further development of the uranyl‐bearing scintillators.

Metal Halide Perovskites for X-ray Imaging Scintillators and Detectors

“…Energy resolution is the ability to discriminate between different radiation energies; and it is a critical metric for energy spectrum applications, especially for γ-ray spectroscopy . Additionally, the radiation and chemical stability, linearity of scintillation response with the incident radiation, emission wavelength, and price are important criteria for scintillator material selection …”

“…49 Additionally, the radiation and chemical stability, linearity of scintillation response with the incident radiation, emission wavelength, and price are important criteria for scintillator material selection. 82 Direct X-ray Detection Mechanism. Direct-type X-ray detectors are classified into pulse-mode and current-mode devices depending on the operating principle.…”

Halide Perovskite, a Potential Scintillator for X‐Ray Detection

“…Generally, scintillator materials can be classified as intrinsic (luminescence centers are created by inherent defects in structural units or hosts) or extrinsic (doping appropriate ions to provide luminescence centers) systems, and the emission mechanisms is shown in Figure 1b. [ 64 ] Especially for the latter, when ions that allow radiation transition (such as Ce 3+ , Pr 3+ or Nd 3+ ) are used, [ 65–68 ] high‐quality scintillators can be produced, and efficient and rapid energy transfer from the host material can be achieved. Therefore, the material has a great influence on the performance of the scintillator.…”

The Role of Acidity in the Synthesis of Novel Uranyl Selenate and Selenite Compounds and Their Structures

“…However, more contemporary investigations have utilized systematic approaches, which better enable improved synthesis control and increased understanding and prediction of potential reaction outcomes [17,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Saliently, many of these more recent studies have highlighted the unique ability and promising application of uranium derived compounds in societally important materials such as radiation detectors, scintillators to proton conductors [34][35][36].…”

“…A key component driving these promising applications is the combination of traditional functional chemical components such as stereo-active lone pair possessing IO 3 − and SeO 3 2− units with that of the uranium's unique chemical character as a 5f element which, together, drives the properties of obtained structures to often rival or excede those of non-uranium/actinide analogues [14,36]. This has been exemplified by UPI-1 and other monoiodate and monoselenite/monoselenate possessing uranyl compounds [5,6,14].…”