Principles of Chemical Designing of Styrene-Based Plastic Scintillators Doped with Quantum Dots

Plastic scintillators based on polystyrene and other polymers of the vinyl aromatic series (polyvinyltoluene, polyvinylxylene, etc.) have long been used in scintillation detectors because of their short fluorescence lifetimes, low cost, and relative ease of fabrication. On the other hand, these materials have a small light output. Plastic scintillators are usually doped with fluorescent organic dyes to impart scintillation properties to the polymer matrix and increase the light yield. In recent years, considerable interest has been aroused by studies aimed at the use of semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots) as dopants for plastic scintillators based on polymer matrices. The most promising materials for this purpose are considered to be CsPbBr₃ perovskite nanocrystals and CdSe/ZnS quantum dots of the core/shell type. These materials have high quantum yields, and high effective atomic numbers and can be effectively integrated into polymer matrices while preserving their structural and optical properties. Thus, it can be hypothesized that doping plastic scintillators with quantum dots can significantly improve their light yield and increase their radiation resistance. Here, we propose an approach to the chemical design of plastic scintillators doped with quantum dots, investigate their radioluminescence, and describe the optimal parameters for the fabrication of such composite scintillators by radical polymerization of para-methylstyrene.