Nuclear Inst.

and Methods in Physics Research, A 929 (2019) 23–28

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nima

Characterization of plastic scintillator fabricated by UV LED curing machine

Sangmin Lee, Jaebum Son, Dong Geon Kim, Joonbum Choi, Yong Kyun Kim ∗
Department of Nuclear Engineering, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Production of plastic scintillators using 3D printing technology has gained increased interest, and related
Plastic scintillator researches are being published. However, research results show that the performance of plastic scintillators,
UV curing such as light yield or decay time, is still poor compared to that of commercial products. In order to improve
Fluorescence spectrum
the scintillator performance, a UV-curable solution was prepared by applying ADS148BE, a new wavelength
Scintillation efficiency
shifter, from which a plastic scintillator was fabricated using a UV LED curing machine. The maximum emission
Light output
Decay time
wavelength of the prepared scintillator occurred at 429 nm. The transmittance at peak emission was 49%.
The scintillation efficiency was measured to be 43% of BC408 (Saint-Gobain Crystals). The light yield was
determined to be 35% of BC408. It is about 1.9 times better than that of a scintillator fabricated by a UV
lamp of a previously published paper [12]. The light output was estimated as 33.7% of BC408. The decay time
was approximately 2.46 ns. This is the relative value measured after setting the decay time of the reference
scintillator to match the manufacturer’s data. Compared to the UV-curable plastic scintillator of previously
reported studies, we have improved the overall performance of our sample and will be able to make precise
shapes with a 3D printer.

1. Introduction
Organic scintillators are widely used to detect nuclear radiations.
They generally contain a large number of aromatic compounds that
increase scintillation efficiency [1]. Plastic scintillators, one of the
types of organic scintillators, have some advantages such as short
response time, high optical transmission, and ease of being shaped and
fabricated [2]. Research on polymer matrices for plastic scintillators,
which improve performance such as radiation sensitivity and light
yield by adding various dopants and phosphors, has also been actively
studied [3–7]. There is still a lot of potential for the development of
new plastic scintillators for various applications.
Typically, plastic scintillators are fabricated by thermal polymeriza-
tion at high temperature (above 100 ◦ C) and the overall preparation
process lasts several days. When initiator is added, the polymerization
can be carried out at a low temperature of 50 to 60 ◦ C and the polymer-
ization time can be shortened, but it is still difficult to produce within
one day. [1,3,8–10]. Recent studies have shown that UV polymerization
can produce plastic scintillators in tens of seconds to tens of minutes.
UV curing is generally known to increase production speed, surface
hardness, gloss, and productivity. However, the performance of the
scintillator fabricated through this process is still poorer than that of
commercial products. In 2014, there was a first study of a plastic
scintillator produced by a 3D printer; its scintillation efficiency was
28% of the commercial scintillator EJ204 [11]. In a paper published in
2016, a plastic scintillator was produced by a UV lamp, which featured
a light yield of 14.2% of the commercial scintillator ST501 and a decay
time of 2.6 ns [12]. These reported performance are not yet a viable
alternative for commercial products. For example, in clinical dosimetry,
one of the fields where plastic scintillators are used, tissue equivalence,
linear dose response, energy independence, and spatial resolution are
significant characteristics [13,14]. For precise and quick measurements
of these properties, plastic scintillators should basically have high light
output and fast decay time.
Digital Light Processing (DLP) is a 3D printing technology that
uses UV light to solidify a photopolymer resin layer by layer. DLP
can achieve faster print times for some parts, as each entire layer is
exposed all at once [15]. A common DLP projector is used as the
light source with an emission wavelength of 385 or 405 nm. The
emission wavelength of the light source should be contained in the
absorption wavelength region of a photoinitiator that absorbs light and
causes a polymerization reaction. Since styrene, which is commonly
used as commercial plastic scintillator monomer, contains strong triplet
quenchers that interfere with the polymerization process, it is very
difficult to photopolymerize it with 3D printer [16]. For this reason,
it is necessary to change the monomer to another material or to add a
material with comparatively good photopolymerization.
In this study, a scintillator was fabricated by a UV LED curing
machine using ADS148BE, a material that could be substituted for
POPOP which is the most commonly used as wavelength shifter. The

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ykkim4@hanyang.ac.kr (Y.K. Kim).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2019.03.048
Received 26 February 2018; Received in revised form 4 July 2018; Accepted 16 March 2019
Available online 19 March 2019
0168-9002/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
S. Lee, J. Son, D.G. Kim et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 929 (2019) 23–28

Fig. 1. Structure of oligomer 621A-80.

polymer base consisted of styrene and oligomer 621A-80. PPO was

used as the primary fluorescence dye. The polymerization was initiated
by the photoinitiator BAPO. The transmittance, fluorescence emission
spectrum, light output, and decay time of the prepared scintillator were
measured and compared with the commercial scintillator BC408 (Saint-
Gobain Crystals). It has been confirmed that plastic scintillators can
be manufactured in a short time with UV curing technology and the
performance of the scintillators can be increased.

2. Experimental

2.1. Materials

Styrene (from SAMCHUN Co.), one of the most efficient plastic sol-
vents was used as a polymerizable solvent. A highly viscous and trans-
parent material, oligomer 621A-80, was added to form a copolymer
with styrene. Oligomer 621A-80 has a lower ratio of phenyl group than
styrene, which is disadvantageous in terms of scintillation efficiency
(see in Fig. 1). However, because of its fast curing speed, it is possi-
ble to compensate for the difficulty of photopolymerization when the
polymer base is composed of styrene alone. PPO (2,5-diphenyloxazole)
(from TCI Co., Ltd.), an efficient fluor commonly used in plastic so-
lutions, was used as a primary solute. The second solute, which acts
as a wavelength shifter, was a light emitting polymer, ADS148BE Fig. 2. Schematic view of an experiment to fabricate a plastic scintillator using the
(poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-co-(1,4-phenylene)]) (from Amer- UV curing machine.
ican Dye Source, Inc.). POPOP, which is widely used as a wavelength
shifter, has a disadvantage, which is its very low solubility. Therefore,
ADS148BE, which is similar to the absorption and emission wavelength
of POPOP and has higher solubility, was applied as a substitute ma-
terial [17]. BAPO (Phenylbis(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)phosphineoxide)
(from Aladdin Industrial Corp.) was selected as a photoinitiator, which
is a material that matches the absorption wavelength with the emission
wavelength of the UV LED curing machine. The outstanding absorption
properties of BAPO allow the curing of thick sections [18]. When a
large amount of BAPO is added, the UV curing reaction may proceed
quickly. However, since the performance of the plastic scintillator
is degraded, the appropriate ratio of BAPO was set through several
experiments. All reagents were used as supplied.

2.2. Preparation of UV-curable plastic scintillator

The UV-curable solution consists of the polymer base (styrene and
oligomer 621A-80 by mass ratio of 7:3), PPO (1 wt% of polymer
base), ADS148BE (0.01 wt% of polymer base) and photoinitiator BAPO
(0.5 wt% of polymer base). The proportions of each component were
determined by considering the high light yield, fast curing rate and
physical stability after curing by a number of preliminary experiments.
Especially, a proper amount of photoinitiator is important. A small
amount of photoinitiator will reduce the curability, whereas excessive
photoinitiator will reduce the homogeneity of the scintillator and lower
the light yield [19,20]. Since 621A-80 is a very viscous acrylate and the
solutes are difficult to dissolve immediately, PPO, ADS148BE and BAPO
are first dissolved in styrene and then 621A-80 was added at room
temperature. The UV-curable solution was polymerized by irradiation
with the UV LED curing machine for 3000 s. The emission wavelength
of the UV LED curing machine was 385 nm, the irradiation area was
30 mm × 30 mm, and the UV intensity was approximately 400 mW/cm2
Fig. 3. Fabricated plastic scintillator (left) and commercial scintillator, BC408 (right).
at a distance of 50 mm (measured by UV light meter, UIT-250). A PFA
beaker with an outer diameter of 32 mm was used to easily remove the
hardened plastic scintillator. The irradiation distance from the surface
of the solution in the beaker to the UV LED curing machine was 50 mm.
The schematic view of the curing experiment is shown in Fig. 2. 𝛷
30 mm × 10 mm plastic scintillator was fabricated as shown in Fig. 3
(left).
The addition of ADS148BE resulted in increased shrinkage after UV
curing and the surface of the scintillator became non-uniform. This is
not the case when curing a very small thickness; however, it became a
problem because the scintillator has been cured to a thickness of more
than 1 cm. In addition, when UV intensity or the amount of the solution
is increased, the temperature rises during the reaction. This causes the

24
S. Lee, J. Son, D.G. Kim et al.
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup for measuring the energy spectrum (137 Cs source for light yield measurement,
measurement).
Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup for measuring the decay time.
solution to boil and the surface of the scintillator to burn, increasing
the difficulty to produce a plastic scintillator. The shrunken surface of
the cured plastic scintillator was finished by polishing.
2.3. Characterization techniques
Fluorescence measurements were performed with a Varian Cary
Eclipse fluorescence spectrophotometer. Excitation and emission spec-
tra were recorded with 5 nm of spectral bandwidth. Optical transmit-
tance and absorption spectra were acquired with a Varian Cary 300
Conc UV–visible spectrophotometer.
Scintillation measurements were carried out by excitation of the
samples with a 137 Cs source. Pulse height spectra were obtained by
coupling the samples with a H6410 Hamamatsu Photomultiplier tube
(PMT). Scintillator samples were attached to the PMT windows with
optical grease (BC-630, Saint-Gobain Crystals) and wrapped with Teflon
tape in order to maximize the light collection by the PMT photocath-
ode. They were sealed with several layers of black tape on the packed
Teflon tape to insulate the PMT from the external light. The 137 Cs
source was placed in front of the sealed samples. The PMT was supplied
with a 1500 V negative voltage by a Caen N1470. The scintillation
pulses produced by the PMT were amplified by an Ortec 572A. Shaping
time was set to 0.01 μs, because the plastic scintillators generally have a
very short decay time (few ns). The amplifier gain was set to 10 for both
the prepared scintillator and the commercial scintillator, BC408 (Saint-
Gobain Crystals). The light yields were compared with that obtained
from the BC408 plastic scintillator of 30 mm × 30 mm × 10 mm size
25
Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 929 (2019) 23–28
90
Sr source for scintillation efficiency
under the same experimental conditions. The schematic diagram of
the experimental setup for measuring the energy spectrum is shown
in Fig. 4.
In order to measure the scintillation efficiency and compare it with
the result of another paper [11], a 100 mm light guide was placed
between the plastic scintillator and the PMT in the setting of Fig. 4;
in addition, the energy spectrum was recorded under the 90 Sr source.
To determine the decay time constant, two PMTs, referred to as
PMT-1 and PMT-2, were used to collect the photoelectron signals. The
plastic scintillator was directly coupled to PMT-1 and the opposite side
of the scintillator was connected to PMT-2 via a 30 mm light guide.
The surface of PMT-2 was covered with aluminum foil with a 1 mm
diameter hole for single photon counting. The average number of the
detected single photon pulse is less than 3 per 100 event of PMT-
2. The two PMT anode signals were received by FADC (Notice) and
data processing was performed using the Root program [18,21,22]. The
schematic diagram of the experimental setup for measuring the decay
time is shown in Fig. 5.
3. Result and discussion
3.1. UV absorption spectra and fluorescence emission spectra
UV absorption and fluorescence emission spectra were collected to
investigate the energy transfer and interaction of the materials in the
luminescence process. It can be seen that the emission spectrum of
PPO almost coincides with the absorption of ADS148BE in Fig. 6. This
S. Lee, J. Son, D.G. Kim et al. Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 929 (2019) 23–28

Fig. 6. UV absorption spectra of PPO, ADS148BE, photoinitiator BAPO, and Fig. 8. Pulse height spectra of prepared scintillator and BC408 under 137Cs source for
fluorescence emission spectra of PPO, ADS148BE in cyclohexane. light yield estimation.

Table 1
Characteristics of prepared scintillator and BC408.
Scintillator Wavelength of Quantum Light output Decay time
emission max efficiency (ph/MeV) (ns)
(nm) (%)
BC408 425 22.94 6273 2.1 ± 0.04
Sample 429 24.91 2115 2.46 ± 0.02

emission spectral range, scintillation light does not enter the PMT
completely. Although there are several reasons for the relatively low
transmittance, the main reason is thought to be the addition of the
oligomer 621A-80. In general, polymerization of styrene alone leads to
formation of polystyrene plastics with high crystallinity. However, it is
expected that when styrene and oligomer 621A-80 are copolymerized,
the crystallinity is significantly lowered. Therefore, this is thought to
affect the transparency of the scintillator.

Fig. 7. Fluorescence emission and transmittance spectra of prepared scintillator and

BC408.
3.3. Relative light output

The scintillation light output was obtained by calculating the light

means that ADS148BE absorbs the light emitted by PPO and emits
fluorescence at a longer wavelength. The emission wavelength of the
UV LED curing machine (385 nm) does not match the peak of the
absorption spectrum of the photoinitiator BAPO, but the UV curing
was possible because the wavelength of 385 nm is located within the
absorption spectrum of photoinitiator BAPO.
The fluorescence emission spectra of the prepared scintillator and
BC408 are shown in Fig. 7. Considering the position and shape of the
emission spectrum of the ADS148BE in Fig. 6, it can be seen that the
fluorescence of the prepared scintillator is mostly occupied by the light
emitted by the ADS148BE. The emission peak of prepared scintillator
was 429 nm, which is consistent with the high spectral sensitivity
region of the PMT.
3.2. Transmittance
Plastic scintillators have good transmittance to allow scintillation
light to propagate through the material and reduce self-absorption.
This affects the measurement of light yield because it involves how
much the scintillation light from the wavelength shifter enters the
photodetector. The transmittance of the prepared scintillator at the
wavelength of maximum emission (429 nm) was 49% (shown in Fig. 7).
BC408 has excellent transmittance in all emission spectral regions;
however, since the prepared scintillator has low transmittance in the
yield of scintillators and efficiency of the PMT. The light yield was
determined by using Bertolaccini et al. method [23,24]. The number of
photoelectrons per energy unit was calculated by comparison between
the single photoelectron spectrum and the Compton edge position in
the given energy spectrum.
( ) ( )
𝑃 𝑃𝐸 𝐾1𝑝ℎ𝑒 1 [phe ]
𝑁𝑝ℎ𝑒 = ⋅ ⋅ ∕MeV (1)
𝐾𝐸 𝑃 𝑃1𝑝ℎ𝑒 0.477
In the present measurement, Compton edge (477 keV) was used
for the 662 keV full energy peak from 137 Cs source. PPE and PP1phe
represent the position of the Compton edge and a single photoelectron
signal, respectively. The peak position was recorded with different
gains of the spectroscopy amplifier (K) due to the large difference in
amplitude between the single photoelectron signal and the 137 Cs energy
spectrum. The pulse height spectra of the prepared scintillator and
BC408 are shown in Fig. 8.
It is necessary to consider the quantum efficiency of PMT when
calculating the scintillation light output, since the spectral sensitivity
of PMT differs depending on the wavelength. The quantum efficiency
was obtained using spectral response characterization data of the PMT
for the emission wavelength. The calculated values are summarized in
Table 1. The light output of the prepared scintillator was estimated to
be 33.7% of that of BC408.
If we estimate the light yield with only the Compton edge channel
position, it shows 35% performance compared to BC408. Converting

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S. Lee, J. Son, D.G. Kim et al.
Fig. 9. Pulse height spectra of prepared scintillator and BC408 under 90Sr source for
comparison of scintillation efficiency.
the value through a data sheet of commercially available plastic scin-
tillators (BC408: 64% light yield of Anthracene, ST401: 50% light
yield of Anthracene), the light yield of the prepared scintillator was
expected to be nearly 1.9 times better than that of a scintillator which
has been manufactured with the UV lamp of the previously published
paper [12,25].
3.4. Scintillation efficiency
Energy spectra were measured with a 90 Sr source to obtain scintilla-
tion efficiency. By comparing the total number of photoelectrons gen-
erated per energy, the efficiency of the scintillators was estimated after
background subtraction. The scintillation efficiency of the prepared
scintillator was evaluated to be about 43% of BC408. The measured
energy spectra are shown in Fig. 9. The spectrum of the sample was
measured only in the lower channel region compared to BC408. It
can be inferred that the amount of light is smaller because there
is little scintillation response. In the previously published paper, the
scintillation efficiency of the scintillator fabricated by the 3D printer
was 28% compared to the EJ204 [11]. Performance comparison is
difficult because the type of reference scintillator and the settings for
characterization are not exactly the same; however, it is necessary to
compare them later using the same reference scintillator.
3.5. Decay time
The time difference of the signals between the two PMTs was
measured and a timing histogram was generated. The PMT-1 provided
the start timing of the signal and the PMT-2 provided a probability
function of the scintillation emission timing. The time difference data
was fitted to a single exponential function. The decay time constant
was calculated by taking the negative value of the inverse slope of
the single exponential decay curve. The fitting on the graph was done
from the channel of maximum height to the end channel. We set the
decay time constant of BC408 to the reference value of 2.1 ns by time
calibration and computed the data of our sample in the same way. The
decay time constant of the prepared scintillator was 2.46 ± 0.02 ns.
The time difference spectra are shown in Fig. 10.
4. Conclusion
The UV-curable plastic scintillator was fabricated with a UV LED
curing machine. The polymer base for the UV-curable solution con-
sisted of styrene and oligomer 621A-80. PPO was used as a primary
27
Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A 929 (2019) 23–28
Fig. 10. Time distribution for a decay time measurement.
fluorescence dye, and a new material, ADS148BE, was used as a wave-
length shifter. UV curing was achieved by photoinitiator BAPO that
absorbed light at a wavelength of 385 nm.
By measuring UV absorption and fluorescence emission spectra, we
have confirmed that ADS148BE is available as a wavelength shifter for
plastic scintillator. The maximum emission wavelength of the prepared
scintillator was 429 nm and the transmittance was 49% at the peak
emission. It was estimated that the light output of the prepared scin-
tillator was 33.7% of that of BC408. The decay time was calculated to
be nearly 2.46 ± 0.02 ns. More accurate characterization experiments
will be performed later for measurement of absolute values.
In this study, we have shown that UV curing technology could be
used to fabricate plastic scintillators in a relatively short time. Further-
more, we confirmed the applicability of a new material to improve the
scintillator performance. It is expected that it can be applied to 3D
printing technology if it is possible to fabricate plastic scintillators with
good performance and physical properties after curing in future studies.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (No.
NRF-2016M2A2A6A03912636).
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