Development of plastic scintillators doped with silole-based aggregation-induced emission phosphors for scintillation light yield improvement

Plastic scintillators doped with 1,1,2,3,4,5-hexaphenyl-1H-silole (HPS) exhibiting good aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behavior were developed to improve the scintillation light yield. The photoluminescence and scintillation properties of the plastic scintillators containing HPS at the concentration of 0.10-10 mol% were characterized. Plastic scintillators containing HPS exhibited high photoluminescence quantum yields with a high concentration of HPS; additionally, they exhibited concentration quenching tolerance owing to their AIE. Scintillation light yields up to 8200 photons/MeV were achieved at HPS concentrations of 0.50 and 1.0 mol%, and decreased when >1.0 mol% owing to self-absorption. The scintillation decay time constants of the first component were approximately 5 ns at an HPS concentration of >0.5 mol%.