Boron Cluster‐Based X‐Ray Scintillators for Highly Efficient Radioluminescence

ABSTRACT Organic scintillators represent a promising alternative to conventional inorganic scintillators; however, their practical applications are severely hampered by inferior x‐ray absorption and inefficient exciton utilization, which lead to unsatisfactory scintillation performance. Herein, we designed and synthesized a novel class of highly efficient boron cluster‐based organic scintillators featuring a donor–acceptor architecture, constructed by covalently integrating a carbazole donor into an iodophenyl carborane cluster acceptor. These materials exhibit high absolute quantum yields up to 95.8% and an ultralow x‐ray detection limit of 76 nGy s −1 , representing exceptional scintillation performance compared to the commercial inorganic BGO (Bi 4 Ge 3 O 12 ) scintillator (105 nGy s −1 ). Mechanistic studies reveal that the bright radioluminescence originates from intramolecular charge transfer from the carbazole moiety to the carborane core, which leads to thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emission and enables theoretically 100% exciton utilization. This work establishes that metal‐free boron clusters can serve as versatile building blocks for constructing high‐performance organic scintillators, opening a new avenue for next‐generation x‐ray scintillators.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie
Published
2026-07-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.1428276
Primary Topic
Boron Compounds in Chemistry
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Boron Cluster‐Based X‐Ray Scintillators for Highly Efficient Radioluminescence

Deshuang Tu, Ye Tao, Ningning Zhou, Hong Yan et al.
Angewandte Chemie
Boron Compounds in Chemistry
article

Boron Cluster‐Based X‐Ray Scintillators for Highly Efficient Radioluminescence

Deshuang Tu, Ye Tao, Ningning Zhou, Hong Yan, Changsheng Lu, Mengmeng Wang, Yitong Liu, Mengzhu Wang, Ziheng Fan
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Organic scintillators represent a promising alternative to conventional inorganic scintillators; however, their practical applications are severely hampered by inferior x‐ray absorption and inefficient exciton utilization, which lead to unsatisfactory scintillation performance. Herein, we designed and synthesized a novel class of highly efficient boron cluster‐based organic scintillators featuring a donor–acceptor architecture, constructed by covalently integrating a carbazole donor into an iodophenyl carborane cluster acceptor. These materials exhibit high absolute quantum yields up to 95.8% and an ultralow x‐ray detection limit of 76 nGy s −1 , representing exceptional scintillation performance compared to the commercial inorganic BGO (Bi 4 Ge 3 O 12 ) scintillator (105 nGy s −1 ). Mechanistic studies reveal that the bright radioluminescence originates from intramolecular charge transfer from the carbazole moiety to the carborane core, which leads to thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emission and enables theoretically 100% exciton utilization. This work establishes that metal‐free boron clusters can serve as versatile building blocks for constructing high‐performance organic scintillators, opening a new avenue for next‐generation x‐ray scintillators.

Angewandte Chemie
Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CN), Nanjing University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Boron Compounds in Chemistry
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