Shape-on-demand synthesis of luminescent (ETP)2MnBr4 glass scintillator

Thanks to the low melting point of hybrid glass, (ETP)2MnBr4 namely, scintillators of arbitrary shapes were synthesized in a flexible silicon mold at low temperature (ca. 180 ℃), representing a new route to a transparent bulk of highly luminescence. [Display omitted] •The (ETP)2MnBr4 glass was synthesized at a low temperature down to 180 ℃.•The luminescent glass exhibited a high transparency over 85% and a nearly-unity PL QY.•The internal crystallization of the hybrid glass was effectively driven by a mild annealing process at 60 ℃.•The low melting point of glass enabled the use of silicone molds for varied shapes, such as slide, monolith, and rod.•The ensuing scintillating screen for X-ray imaging achieved a high spatial resolution (26.8 lp/mm). In contrast to all-inorganic scintillators, organic–inorganic hybrid glass of low melting-point has many advantages in fabricating bulky and transparent scintillator at low temperature. Here, the (ETP)2MnBr4 (ETPBr = ethyltriphenylphosphonium bromide) glass was successfully synthesized at 180 ℃, which exhibited a high transparency over 85 % (ranging from 500 to 800 nm) and a nearly-unity photoluminescence quantum yield. A mild annealing process at 60 ℃ was found effective to drive the interior crystallization of hybrid glass, which was only achievable at several hundred degrees for inorganic glass. The interior crystallization significantly improved the luminescence intensity at the expense of optical transparency. Importantly, based on the low melting point of (ETP)2MnBr4 glass, flexible silicone molds were used as container to obtain a variety of scintillators of arbitrary sizes and shapes, such as alphabet, slide, monolith, and rod. The (ETP)2MnBr4 glass was used as scintillating screen in X-ray detection and imaging, demonstrating a high light yield (66000 photons/MeV of annealed glass) and a high spatial resolution (26.8 lp/mm of transparent glass), respectively. This work not only refined the synthesis process of bulk scintillator, but also opened many avenues in luminescent volumetric display and three-dimensional imaging.