Low-Cost, Large-Area, and Highly Transparent Organic Glassy Scintillators for High Resolution X-Ray Imaging

The architectural design and fabrication of low-cost, high-performance organic scintillators are critical for medical imaging and material/device analysis. However, achieving large-area and high-transparency organic scintillators in a low-cost and easy-to-implement method remains a challenge. Herein, a new design strategy for regulating the side chain length of maleimide derivatives is demonstrated to develop organic scintillators for achieving low-cost, large-area, and high spatial resolution in X-ray imaging. The effective intermolecular interactions and relatively twisted molecular structure endow PAM-M4 molecule with outstanding scintillator properties. More importantly, as demonstrated for the first time, pure organic glassy films with a diameter over 10 cm and high optical transparency can be prepared by the developed melt-quenched method using PAM-M4 crystal powder as a raw material. This glassy film exhibits excellent X-ray imaging ability with a spatial resolution as high as 27.0 lp mm-1 at MTF = 0.20, which is one of the best results among reported organic scintillators. The results of this work not only develop a new design strategy for high-performance organic scintillators but also demonstrate a reliable approach to fabricating large area screens with superior spatial resolution for medical or industrial X-ray imaging applications. A maleimide-based scintillator can be easily synthesized and exhibits a fast scintillation decay time of 12.38 ns, a high PLQY of 87.6%, and a low detection limit of 0.14 mu Gy s-1. By using the melt-quenched method, PAM-M4 crystal can turn into a large-area glassy film. This glassy film exhibits a transmittance of over 90%, along with a resolution of 27.0 lp mm-1 for X-ray imaging, which represents the state-of-the-art performance for organic scintillators. image