Synthesis of Nanoparticles of Aluminium–Boron complex for Radiation Sensor

Abstract

Radiation sensors based on thermo luminescence from nanoparticles of aluminium-boron complex for gamma radiation have been reported. Crystal chemistry of aluminium boride is quite complicated and is derived from complex tetragonal modification of boron. The crystal structure varies with the method of preparation and energy band gap contains defect states governed by the temperature during synthesis. There are various methods of preparing nanoparticles like boll milling, sol-gel and RF-thermal plasma. In the present studies Aluminum boron complex nanoparticles were synthesized by DC- transferred arc thermal plasma method. The DC-transferred arc thermal plasma has been received great attention as a useful method to synthesize nanoparticles. Since a substance is easily evaporated in large volume of thermal plasma.  A pure aluminium and boron powders were mixed together and made to evaporate from water cooled graphite after impinging thermal plasma plume. Argon with flow rate of 3L/min was used as a plasma forming gas for the evaporation of raw powder mixture in Ar ambient in the plasma reactor. The obtained nanoparticles of aluminum –boron complex were characterized using X-ray diffraction technique for structural analysis, Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for morphological analysis and energy dispersive analysis by X-ray (EDAX) for elemental analysis. The aluminum boron complex so obtained was investigated for thermoluminscence properties.