Through-Space Charge-Transfer Organogold(III) Complexes Enable High-Performance X-ray Scintillation and Imaging

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Organic Chemistry
• Radiological Physics

Background:

• Organic scintillators are crucial for X-ray detection in industrial and medical fields.
• Existing organic scintillators suffer from low X-ray attenuation efficiency and inefficient triplet exciton utilization.
• Novel material design is needed to overcome these limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a new class of organogold(III) complexes for advanced X-ray detection.
• To investigate the role of through-space interactions in enhancing X-ray attenuation and emission efficiency.
• To evaluate the performance of these complexes in radioluminescence and X-ray imaging.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of novel organogold(III) complexes (Tp-Au-1 and Tp-Au-2) utilizing a through-space interaction motif.
• Photoluminescence quantum yield and radiative lifetime measurements.
• X-ray irradiation experiments to assess radioluminescence and scintillation light yield.
• Evaluation of scintillator screen performance for X-ray imaging resolution.

Main Results:

• The developed organogold(III) complexes exhibit efficient through-space charge transfer, leading to high photoluminescence quantum yield and short radiative lifetimes.
• These complexes display polarity-dependent emission, including thermally activated delayed fluorescence and phosphorescence.
• Tp-Au-2 achieved a record scintillation light yield of 77,600 photons MeV⁻¹ for organic scintillators.
• Scintillator screens demonstrated high-quality X-ray imaging with >16.0 line pairs mm⁻¹ spatial resolution.

Conclusions:

• The through-space interaction motif is a viable strategy for designing high-performance organic X-ray scintillators.
• Organogold(III) complexes offer a promising platform for overcoming the limitations of current organic scintillators.
• These findings pave the way for superior X-ray detection technologies in various applications.