Highly Efficient and Flexible Scintillation Screen Based on Organic Mn(II) Halide Hybrids toward Planar and Nonplanar X-Ray Imaging

The urgency for cost-effective, high-resolution, flexible X-ray imaging detectors is generating great demand for scintillators with low-temperature processability, high scintillation yield, and negligible afterglow. X-ray imaging materials are currently dominated by inorganic scintillators in the form of rigid films and bulk crystals, which have inherent limitations including high-temperature, complex synthesis, and considerable challenges toward advanced nonplanar imaging. Here, high-performance and flexible X-ray scintillators based on novel zero-dimensional (0D) (BTPP)₂MnX₄ (BTPP = benzyltriphenylphosphonium; X = Cl, Br) halides are reported. They emit bright green light originating from the ⁴T₁-⁶A₁ transition of Mn²⁺ under X-ray excitation. In particular, (BTPP)₂MnBr₄ single crystals exhibit excellent air- and radiation-stability, a high scintillation yield of 53 000 photons MeV⁻¹, a low detection limit of 89.9 nGy_air s⁻¹, and an ultralow afterglow comparable to commercial Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ (BGO) single crystals. Moreover, the (BTPP)₂MnCl₄@polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) flexible scintillation screens achieve a high spatial resolution of 14.1 lp mm⁻¹ and realize high-quality imaging results of nonplanar objects. This study demonstrates that the flexible scintillation screens based on low-dimensional Mn(II) hybrid halides have significant potential for low-dose and high-resolution X-ray imaging applications.