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Combinatorial Approach for the Discovery of New Scintillating Materials

Award Information
Agency: Department of Energy
Branch: N/A
Contract: DE-FG02-05ER84310
Agency Tracking Number: 78026S05-I
Amount: $99,282.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: 47 a
Solicitation Number: DE-FG01-04ER04-33
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2005
Award Year: 2005
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): N/A
Award End Date (Contract End Date): N/A
Small Business Information
4541 East Fort Lowell Road
Tucson, AZ 85712
United States
DUNS: N/A
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 John Cronin
 Dr.
 (520) 321-7680
 jcronin@qwest.net
Business Contact
 Anoop Agrawal
Title: Dr.
Phone: (520) 321-7680
Email: aagrawal@qwest.net
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

78026S05 New scintillator materials must be synthesized and evaluated for use in detecting and deterring the proliferation of nuclear weapons. However, there are thousands of possible scintillator materials and it is a challenge to determine which of them will have superior properties. This project will develop a combinatorial approach to efficiently synthesize and evaluate a large number of scintillator materials. Such combinatorial methods are prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry where thousands of drug candidates, DNA strands, and other biological materials are evaluated in parallel in a micro-array format. The approach will adapt the biological methodology to scintillator materials ¿ a significant challenge because scintillatory materials typically comprise several elements or oxides, and there are no good theortical methods to identify suitable compositions. Phase I will demonstrate the methodology on two classes of scintillator materials. In Phase II, either the identified material compositions will be grown into single crystals to demonstrate their efficacy in scintillators or the methodology will be refined to explore candidates from more classes of materials. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: In addition to applications of scintillator materials for checking nuclear materials in defense, research, and in preventing terrorist activities, the new materials should also have applications for public use: in nuclear imaging for medical purposes, monitoring of soils and rocks for nuclear contamination (e.g., in oil and mining exploration), and non-destructive evaluation (e.g., evaluation of airframes, chemical reactors, cargo check, power conduits).

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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