Environmental conditions leading to fogging in commercial poly(vinyltoluene) plastic scintillators

Myllenbeck, Nicholas R.; Payne, Stephen; Feng, Patrick L.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2019.01.009

Title: Environmental conditions leading to fogging in commercial poly(vinyltoluene) plastic scintillators

Journal Article · Mon Jan 21 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2019.01.009· OSTI ID:1902600

Myllenbeck, Nicholas R. ^[1]; Payne, Stephen ^[2]; Feng, Patrick L. ^[1]

Sandia National Laboratory (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

We report light scattering particles can appear in environmentally-exposed pieces of plastic scintillator materials, leading to decreased scintillation light output. In this work, 1” cubes of commercially-available plastic scintillators were aged hydrothermally at temperatures between 25–55 °C, and 0%–100% relative humidity (R.H.), and the mass uptake and degree of light scattering were measured after cooling below the aging temperature. A correlation was found between moisture mass uptake and degree of light scattering, and the fogging phenomenon was found to be reversible upon moisture desorption. Additionally, variable temperature light scattering studies revealed a correlation between the temperature of fog onset and moisture mass uptake in hydrothermally-aged 1” scintillator cubes. The fog onset data was further used in a local weather-based model to predict the appearance of light scattering in deployed radiation portal monitor panels, and the model was validated with several specimens collected from retired portal panels. Together, the results quantitatively characterize the observed environmental aging of plastic scintillator radiation portal panels, give insight to deployed panel lifetime as a function of environment, and pave the way for future developments in environmentally-stable radiation portal monitors.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); US Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344; HSHQDN-16-X-00051; HSHQDN-17-X-00035; NA0003525

OSTI ID:: 1902600

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL-819123; 1029418

Journal Information:: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 954, Issue N/A; ISSN 0168-9002

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
polyvinyltoluene
PVT
light scattering
scintillator
phase separation
predictive modeling

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