Development of water-based liquid scintillator based on hydrophilic-lipophilic balance index

Abstract

Liquid scintillator (LS) dissolves a scintillating fluor in an organic base solvent to emit light. LS emits light when it receives energy from external sources. In this study, we developed a water-based liquid scintillator (WbLS), where a surfactant was used to mix water and oil. There are various surfactants in the market, hence, finding a suitable surfactant plays an important role in synthesizing liquid scintillators using water. We performed a feasibility study on synthesizing WbLS based on the hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) index. As far as we are concerned, no literature report on the investigation of WbLS using HLB index has been found. Long-term stability is very important for the WbLS, and it needs to be observed for at least a year for any changes. Meanwhile, as an application of WbLS, sinogram analysis was performed with Radon transformation. It was possible to reconstruct transverse images with longitudinal photo images of the WbLS sample. Optical tomography was done by combining WbLS and digital camera.