Effects of added uranium on the triboluminescent properties of europium dibenzoylmethide triethylammonium

The ability of a material to emit light upon fracture is known as triboluminescence. One of the few materials that emits triboluminescence in daylight is europium dibenzoylmethide triethylammonium (EuD4TEA). It has been shown that this material is 106% brighter than ZnS:Mn when excited by low speed impacts. In 2011, the authors of this paper found that replacing the traditional europium chloride with europium nitrate and changing the carrier solvent could both significantly affect the triboluminescent emission yield. While these changes provided a significant increase in yield, the emission was still not sufficient to be observed in bright daylight. In order to enhance the effect, a series of materials were added to the EuD4TEA to study the effects of "doping" on the triboluminescence yield. Results from this research showed that doping from a small number of materials, such as uranyl acetate, increased emission yield. This paper discusses the research that was completed on effects of the addition of uranyl acetate to EuD4TEA could increase the triboluminmescent emission yield. Results show that the added uranium does indeed increase emission yield when it is first synthesized. However, radiation emitted by the uranium also was found to damage the doped EuD4TEA, thus reducing the emitted triboluminescence over a period of time. - Highlights: ► Uranium doped europium dibenzoylmethide triethylammonium (EuD4TEA) was synthesized. ► Effects of uranium was studied for low velocity (<10 m/s) impacts. ► The triboluminescent light yield, decay time, and synthesis time were measured. ► The effects of radiation on the triboluminescent yield were measured. ► The effects of impact energy for uranium doped EuD4TEA was determined.