Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic molecules for efficient X-ray scintillation and imaging

Wenbo Ma^#^{1

2}, Yirong Su^#¹, Qisheng Zhang³, Chao Deng³, Luca Pasquali^{4

5

6}, Wenjuan Zhu¹, Yue Tian¹, Peng Ran¹, Zeng Chen⁷, Gaoyuan Yang⁸, Guijie Liang⁸, Tianyu Liu¹, Haiming Zhu⁷, Peng Huang⁹, Haizheng Zhong⁹, Kangwei Wang¹⁰, Shaoqian Peng¹⁰, Jianlong Xia¹⁰, Huafeng Liu^{1

2}, Xu Liu¹, Yang Michael Yang^{11

12}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Institute for Advanced Photonics, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² Intelligent Optics & Photonics Research Center, Jiaxing Institute of Zhejiang University, Jiaxing, China.
³ MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Dipartimento di Ingegneria E. Ferrari, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
⁵ CNR-IOM, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Key Laboratory of Excited-State Materials of Zhejiang Province, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁸ Hubei Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang, China.
⁹ MIIT Key Laboratory for Low Dimensional Quantum Structure and Devices, School of Materials & Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Center of Smart Materials and Devices, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China.
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Institute for Advanced Photonics, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. yangyang15@zju.edu.cn.
¹² Intelligent Optics & Photonics Research Center, Jiaxing Institute of Zhejiang University, Jiaxing, China. yangyang15@zju.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 34764429
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-01132-x

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic molecules for efficient X-ray scintillation and imaging

Wenbo Ma et al. Nat Mater. 2022 Feb.

. 2022 Feb;21(2):210-216.

doi: 10.1038/s41563-021-01132-x. Epub 2021 Nov 11.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Institute for Advanced Photonics, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
² Intelligent Optics & Photonics Research Center, Jiaxing Institute of Zhejiang University, Jiaxing, China.
³ MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Dipartimento di Ingegneria E. Ferrari, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
⁵ CNR-IOM, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Key Laboratory of Excited-State Materials of Zhejiang Province, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁸ Hubei Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang, China.
⁹ MIIT Key Laboratory for Low Dimensional Quantum Structure and Devices, School of Materials & Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Center of Smart Materials and Devices, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China.
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, Institute for Advanced Photonics, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. yangyang15@zju.edu.cn.
¹² Intelligent Optics & Photonics Research Center, Jiaxing Institute of Zhejiang University, Jiaxing, China. yangyang15@zju.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 34764429
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-01132-x

Erratum in

Author Correction: Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic molecules for efficient X-ray scintillation and imaging.
Ma W, Su Y, Zhang Q, Deng C, Pasquali L, Zhu W, Tian Y, Ran P, Chen Z, Yang G, Liang G, Liu T, Zhu H, Huang P, Zhong H, Wang K, Peng S, Xia J, Liu H, Liu X, Yang YM. Ma W, et al. Nat Mater. 2022 Jul;21(7):836. doi: 10.1038/s41563-022-01226-0. Nat Mater. 2022. PMID: 35246629 No abstract available.

Abstract

X-ray detection, which plays an important role in medical and industrial fields, usually relies on inorganic scintillators to convert X-rays to visible photons; although several high-quantum-yield fluorescent molecules have been tested as scintillators, they are generally less efficient. High-energy radiation can ionize molecules and create secondary electrons and ions. As a result, a high fraction of triplet states is generated, which act as scintillation loss channels. Here we found that X-ray-induced triplet excitons can be exploited for emission through very rapid, thermally activated up-conversion. We report scintillators based on three thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules with different emission bands, which showed significantly higher efficiency than conventional anthracene-based scintillators. X-ray imaging with 16.6 line pairs mm^-1 resolution was also demonstrated. These results highlight the importance of efficient and prompt harvesting of triplet excitons for efficient X-ray scintillation and radiation detection.

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References

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Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic molecules for efficient X-ray scintillation and imaging

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Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic molecules for efficient X-ray scintillation and imaging

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Erratum in

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Full Text Sources

Research Materials