Noncoordinating Substituent Modulation Strategy Lights Up Uranyl Organic Complexes for Sensitive X-ray Detection and Imaging

Uranyl organic complexes (UOCs) commonly exhibit low photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) due to their high nonradiative transition rate (knr) caused by jammed ligand-to-uranyl energy transfer as well as vibrational energy dissipation derived from the flexible structure. Herein, we proposed a noncoordinating substituent modulation strategy to regulate the electronic structure and the stacking mode of UOCs. An over 60-fold reduction in knr boosts the PLQY from 0.24% (UOC 1) to 42.8% (UOC 3), the highest value in heteroleptic UOCs. With this benefit, UOC 3 emerges as a top-performing uranium-based scintillator for sensitive X-ray detection. Furthermore, a uniform and flexible scintillator film prepared from UOC 3 exhibited a high spatial resolution of approximately 5 lp mm–1 for efficient X-ray imaging.

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Publication Details

Journal
Inorganic Chemistry
Published
2026-05-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6c00497
Primary Topic
Radioactive element chemistry and processing
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Noncoordinating Substituent Modulation Strategy Lights Up Uranyl Organic Complexes for Sensitive X-ray Detection and Imaging

Shuao Wang, X M Wang, Daopeng Sheng, Yingtong Fan et al.
Inorganic Chemistry
Radioactive element chemistry and processing
article

Noncoordinating Substituent Modulation Strategy Lights Up Uranyl Organic Complexes for Sensitive X-ray Detection and Imaging

Shuao Wang, X M Wang, Daopeng Sheng, Yingtong Fan, Jueqiong Wang, Shuaihua Wang, Song Yu, Zhiyong Peng, Junhao Lu, Yanlong Wang, Yang Yang, Chenglu Yuan, Wenkun Zhu, Benxian Huang, Lixi Chen, Lanhua Chen
article en

Abstract

Uranyl organic complexes (UOCs) commonly exhibit low photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) due to their high nonradiative transition rate (knr) caused by jammed ligand-to-uranyl energy transfer as well as vibrational energy dissipation derived from the flexible structure. Herein, we proposed a noncoordinating substituent modulation strategy to regulate the electronic structure and the stacking mode of UOCs. An over 60-fold reduction in knr boosts the PLQY from 0.24% (UOC 1) to 42.8% (UOC 3), the highest value in heteroleptic UOCs. With this benefit, UOC 3 emerges as a top-performing uranium-based scintillator for sensitive X-ray detection. Furthermore, a uniform and flexible scintillator film prepared from UOC 3 exhibited a high spatial resolution of approximately 5 lp mm–1 for efficient X-ray imaging.

Inorganic Chemistry
Southwest University of Science and Technology (CN), Yantai University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), University of Manchester (GB), Huzhou Normal University (CN), Joint Laboratory for Extreme Conditions Matter Properties (CN), Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (CN), International Isotopes (United States) (US), Lanzhou University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China, Science and Technology Program of Suzhou
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 12%
Radioactive element chemistry and processing
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