Detection of radionuclides in water represents an important segment in environmental monitoring of pollutions, nuclear forensics and homeland security. Recently, this field of research has advanced due to development of new efficient organic ligands coupled with scintillators for selective sensing of radioactive elements of interest (e.g. U, Sr, and Cs). The research presented here is focused on combining the advantages of inorganic nanoparticles (durability, high surface area, broad range of possible surface modifications) with those of organic and polymer materials (chemical selectivity, efficient energy harvesting, and high quantum yield of photoluminescence). The above combination allows development of the next generation extractive scintillators for detection of trace amounts of radionuclides in water.<br/>One example of these materials involves inorganic Superlig620 (SL) a commercially available material with high affinity to strontium. The surface of this silica-based material was modified with several different ways to introduce scintillating properties. The explored approaches include: a) “grafting from” scintillating polymer brush (polyvinyltoluene-fluorophore) of various architecture using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP); b) “grafting to” of pre-polymerized dendritic macromolecules containing fluors; and c) chemical or physical attachment of anisotropic nanoparticles (halloysite nanotubes, HS) coated with a fluorescent polymer shell. In the latter case, sorption and scintillating functions of the material can be optimized separately. The anisotropic shape of the nanotubes allows good analyte access to SL surface, while high luminosity function is achieved via surface initiated polymerization of a fluor containing polymer brush. Additional examples include modification of HS with polymerizable ligands for extraction/detection of uranium and/or plutonium in water.

Hybrid nanoparticle-polymer brush composites for detection of radionuclides in water

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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