Boron-loaded organic glass scintillators

Herein we report the progress towards an organic glass scintillator with fast and thermal neutron sensitivity providing triplepulse shape discrimination (PSD) through the inclusion of a boron-incorporated aromatic molecule. The commercially available molecule 2-(p-tolyl)-1,3,2-dioxaborinane (TDB) can be readily synthesized in one step using inexpensive materials and incorporated into the organic glass scintillator at 20% by weight or 0.25%B-10 by mass. In addition, we demonstrate that TDB can be easily scaled up and formulated into organic glass scintillator samples to produce a thermal neutron capture signal with a light yield equivalent to 120.4 +/- 3.7 keVee, which is the highest value reported in the literature to date.

Automated summary

This study reports the progress towards an organic glass scintillator with fast and thermal neutron sensitivity, achieving triple-pulse shape discrimination by incorporating a boron-incorporated aromatic molecule. The molecule 2-(p-tolyl)-1,3,2-dioxaborinane (TDB) was synthesized in one step using inexpensive materials and successfully incorporated into the scintillator. Results show that TDB can be easily scaled up and formulated into samples with the highest reported light yield for thermal neutron capture signal.