Efficient radioactive gas detection by porous metal-organic framework scintillating nanocrystals

Autor: Matteo Orfano, Jacopo Perego, Francesca Cova, Charl Bezuidenhout, Sergio Piva, Christophe Dujardin, Benoit Sabot, Sylvier Pierre, Pavlo Mai, Christophe Daniel, Silvia Bracco, Anna Vedda, Angiolina Comotti, Angelo Monguzzi
Přispěvatelé: Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca = University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB), Institut Lumière Matière [Villeurbanne] (ILM), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel (LNHB), Département Métrologie Instrumentation & Information (DM2I), Laboratoire d'Intégration des Systèmes et des Technologies (LIST (CEA)), Direction de Recherche Technologique (CEA) (DRT (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Direction de Recherche Technologique (CEA) (DRT (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris-Saclay-Laboratoire d'Intégration des Systèmes et des Technologies (LIST (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris-Saclay-Département d'instrumentation Numérique (DIN (CEA-LIST)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Università degli Studi di Salerno = University of Salerno (UNISA), European Project: 899293,H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01,SPARTE
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nature Photonics
Nature Photonics, 2023, pp.10.1038/s41566-023-01211-2. ⟨10.1038/s41566-023-01211-2⟩
ISSN: 1749-4885
1749-4893
DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-9vglj
Popis: International audience; Natural radioactive gases and anthropogenic radionuclides such as radon, xenon, hydrogen and krypton isotopes, need to be carefully monitored to be properly managed as pathogenic agents, radioactive diagnostic agents or indicators of nuclear activity. State-of-the-art gas detectors based on liquid scintillators suffer from many drawbacks such as lengthy sample preparation procedures and limited solubility of gaseous radionuclides, which produces a detrimental effect on measurement sensitivity. A potential breakthrough solution to this problem is the use of solid porous scintillators that act as gas concentrators and therefore could increase detection sensitivity. Highly porous scintillating metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) stand out as relevant materials for the realization of these devices. We demonstrate the capability of porous hafnium-based MOF nanocrystals exploiting dicarboxy-9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA) as a scintillating conjugated linker to detect gas radionuclides. The nanocrystals show fast scintillation properties in the nanosecond domain, a fluorescence quantum yield of ~40% and an accessible porosity suitable to host noble gas atoms and ions. The MOFs have been tested for the adsorption and detection of the radionuclides 85Kr, 222Rn and 3H in a customized newly developed device based on a time coincidence technique. For all of them, MOF nanocrystals demonstrate an improved sensitivity with respect to a reference detector, showing an excellent linear response down to an activity value lower than 1 kBq·m-3 that outperforms that of commercial devices. The results obtained strongly support the possible use of scintillating porous MOF nanocrystals as the building block of ultrasensitive sensors for the detection of natural and anthropogenic radioactive gases.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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