Chapter V Liquid Scintillation Counting in Microbiology

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the liquid scintillation counting in microbiology. Liquid scintillation counting is a method of detecting radioactivity with a solution of certain chemicals and a photomultiplier tube. A scintillator is a material that emits a brief pulse of fluorescent light, or scintillation, when it interacts with a high-energy particle or quantum. The liquid scintillator may be simple or relatively complex, but it must have two essential ingredients: solvent and scintillation solute. In external liquid scintillation counting, the source of radiation is external to the liquid scintillator. These are usually large volume systems. Internal liquid scintillation counting applies to the situation where the source of radiation is intimately mixed with the liquid scintillator. These are usually small volume systems. The intrinsic advantage of internal liquid scintillation counting over other methods of detection is that it puts the source of radiation in intimate contact with the detector. The single most important characteristic that a scintillation solvent must possess is the ability to accept energy from incident ionizing radiation and transfer it to a dissolved scintillator. In addition, other characteristics, such as proper solvent properties in relation to the sample or a small absorption coefficient for the light the solute emits may be superimposed upon this basic requirement.