Suitability of nanoparticles for gamma-ray applications

While measuring the relative gamma-to-electron conversion efficiencies of nanoparticles by incorporating them into plastic scintillator and comparing the number of counts in pulse height spectrum for gamma-rays from ²⁴¹Am, WO_3, and PbO nanocomposites offered lesser scintillation counts than their unloaded counterparts. As investigated, these nanoparticles absorb a major portion of outgoing electron energy such that exiting electrons turn incapable of scintillating the medium. This observation hints why only selected species of nanoparticles successfully enhance the gamma-counting efficiency of plastic scintillators.