One stone, two birds: robust and self-absorption free flexible perovskite scintillators by metal–organic framework encapsulation

In recent years, metal halide perovskite scintillators have demonstrated significant potential for X-ray detection applications. However, these scintillators frequently encounter challenges such as poor stability, insufficient radiation hardness, and substantial self-absorption, which detrimentally affect their scintillation efficiency and practicality. This study explores the encapsulation of perovskite (CsPbBr₃) nanocrystals and dyes simultaneously within mesoporous zinc-based metal-organic frameworks (MOF-5) to boost perovskite scintillation performance. Our findings indicate that the energy transfer from the perovskite to the dye can effectively minimize the self-absorption of the perovskite, significantly increasing the light yield-3.4 times that of pristine CsPbBr₃ nanocrystals, and improve the detection sensitivity by 40%. Furthermore, such encapsulation markedly improves perovskite stability and enhances thermal resistance by 78.9% and radiation hardness by 26.5%. These advances in stability, thermal resilience, and radiation durability, combined with a lower detection limit, allow perovskites to be used in more scintillation scenarios and endure more rigorous operational conditions.