Preparation pressure effects on proposed thermoluminiscent gamma radiation detectors fabricated from single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT)

Single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) pellets have been manufactured at pressures of 1, 2.5 and 5 Tons, and later exposed to gamma photons from a Co60 source to study their thermoluminiscent (TL) properties. SWCNT were synthesized by the electric arc discharge technique and pellets were characterized with Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effective atomic number (Zeff) of these pellets has a value of 15.08 like the one of human bones. The pellets were exposed to a gamma irradiation dose ranging from 1.0 to 100 [ kGy]. The kinetic parameters, activation energy E, frequency factor s, kinetic order b, are obtained from a structure of glow curve using deconvolution and heuristic equations (Chen, Lushchik, Balarin, etc.) give us information of the mechanisms responsible of the TL signal in SWCNT-pellets, which is due to recombination of electron–hole pairs. The main glow peak is observed at 452, 465 and 477 K, in samples A, B and C, respectively. As preparation pressure pellets increases, activation energy decreases for all traps in the samples, indicating the creation of defects in the SWCNT structure. Three stages are displayed in the TL dose-response for all samples, and linearity was maintained up to 2.5 kGy. Thermoluminescence, X-RD, scanning electron microscopy and Raman scattering, analyses show that pellet A is a promising high radiation detector.