Fig. 1: Time-coincidence-based detector for radionuclides gases exploiting porous scintillators.
From: Efficient radioactive gas detection by scintillating porous metal–organic frameworks
a, Schematic representation of the scintillation mechanism inside fluorescent hafnium-based MOFs. The porous frameworks can uptake radioactive gaseous species through physical adsorption and concentrate them inside the pores. The decay process produces β-particles that can effectively interact with the porous particles during their diffusion and thermalization, triggering a sensitized scintillation process. The ligand and metal node that constitutes Hf-DPA, as well as the β-radiation emitted by radionuclides, are shown at the top. b, Sketch of the triple coincidence system designed to reveal radioactive gases by exploiting a porous scintillator. The porous material is placed in the central chamber where it adsorbs the flowing gas molecules, whose β-decay produces high-energy electrons in the pores. The interactions of electrons with the walls of the pores generate the light pulses to be recorded by three symmetric PMTs employed to have a low-noise, time-coincidence detection.
