Production of bismuth germanate ceramic scintillators by combustion synthesis route

The present work presents the results from production of ceramic scintillator Bi4Ge3O12 (bismuth germanate – BGO), which is very sensitive to beta, gamma and X-rays. The production route adopted was combustion synthesis. In this route, the precursors germanium oxide and bismuth nitrate were mixed to urea, used as fuel, and heated up to the ignition temperature, 500 °C. The ignition starts an exothermic reaction that promotes the formation of the desired crystalline phase. It was observed a dependency of the agglomeration of the synthesized powders upon the pH of the initial mixture. The pH was controlled through the addition of ammonium dioxide, and was varied from zero up to 9. Intermediate crystalline phases were observed by DRX measurements of the product of the combustion reaction. After calcination at 600 °C/24 h, the Bi12GeO20 content was enhanced. The optimum conditions of synthesis and sintering of the samples were determined through auxiliary techniques such as DTA and SEM. The synthesized powders presented particle size near 10 nm, whereas the sintered grains reached near 2 μm. The relative density of sintered ceramics, obtained from Archimedes' method, was 96%. (author)