Comparative Study between Fabricated Plastic Scintillator and Existing Product for Gamma Detection

Abstract

A plastic scintillator with an injection method has been developed for a gamma radiation detector. The scintillator was made from the main matrix of polystyrene (PS) pellets with the addition of primary dopant PTP (para-terphenyl) 1.5% wt and secondary dopant as wavelength shifter (WLS) POPOP (1,4-bis [2- (phenyloxazolyl) )] - benzene) 0.01 - 0.05% wt. The mixture of pellets and dopants was fed to the extruder machine to obtain scintillating pellets and then referred to the machine to obtain a 3 mm thin plate plastic scintillator. The evaluation of absorption using a spectrophotometer UV-Vis showed that PS absorbs photons at a wavelength of 310 – 340 nm and PS containing POPOP produces a maximum emission at a wavelength of 421 nm. The evaluation of cesium 137 (137Cs) and cobalt 60 (60Co) gamma spectrum using the photomultiplier tube (PMT) Hamamatsu R878 showed the results of Compton spectrum characters with a gross counting maximum of 0.78 and 0.89, respectively, compared to the commercial plastic scintillator. The results of this study are expected to be usefully utilized in the development of a large-volume plastic scintillator for the radiation portal monitor (RPM).