Fabrication and Characterization of 3D-Printed Polystyrene/CdSiO3:Mn2+ Scintillator Films for X-Ray Imaging Applications

In this work, hybrid polystyrene (PS) filaments containing manganese-doped cadmium metasilicate (CdSiO3:Mn2+) were produced by extrusion and subsequently used to fabricate scintillating films via fused deposition modeling (FDM) three-dimensional (3D) printing. The crystalline structure of the inorganic filler was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The PS/CdSiO3:Mn2+ filaments were evaluated in terms of dimensional stability, morphology, and chemical composition by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), confirming the reproducibility of the extrusion process and the homogeneous incorporation of the scintillator into the polymer matrix. The printed films were characterized by optical transmittance, radioluminescence, radiographic imaging, and digital image processing analyses. The results demonstrate that the radioluminescent activity was preserved after extrusion and 3D printing. Increasing the CdSiO3:Mn2+ loading enhanced the radioluminescent response with only a slight reduction in optical transmittance, while simultaneously improving radiographic image definition. The film containing 40 wt.% CdSiO3:Mn2+ exhibited an optical transmittance of approximately 60% and a spatial resolution of approximately 44 lp/mm at an MTF value of 0.2. These findings demonstrate that the combination of hybrid scintillating materials and additive manufacturing provides a promising strategy for the fabrication of high-resolution X-ray scintillating screens with complex geometries while preserving excellent scintillation performance.