Synthesis of LAB based liquid scintillator for nuclear and high energy physics experiments

Organic scintillators, particularly liquid scintillors have high light yield, good timing (<_∼ ns) and pulse shape discrimination for particle identification. These detectors have been used for fast neutron spectroscopy. Metal-loaded liquid scintillators are the detectors of choice for various experiments such as measurement of thermal neutrons, neutrinos and also search for rare events. The most common organic compound used in liquid scintillators (LS) are Xylene, Toluene and Pseudocumene. These scintillators offer good light yield and pulse shape discrimination. However, these scintillators have a low ash point which for large detectors (> 1 ton) is a fire safety concern. In addition these solvents are not environment friendly. Never the less, new scintillator solvents particularly, phenyl-o-xylyl ethane (PXE), linear alkyl-benzene (LAB) and di-isopropylnaphthalene (DIN) are biodegradable, relatively safe solvents, with a high ash point and very low toxicity compared to traditional liquid scintillator solvents