An exploratory study of a tellurium-loaded liquid scintillator based on water and p-dioxane

Abstract

Tellurium-loaded liquid scintillators are critical for neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments. However, conventional organic scintillators are constrained by the limited solubility of organic tellurium compounds compared with that of inorganic ones in water, whereas water-based scintillators are likely constrained by the destabilization of surfactants caused by inorganic tellurium compounds. In this work, a surfactant-free water-containing route is explored, in which an aqueous telluric acid solution is introduced into a water-miscible organic scintillator comprising p-dioxane, naphthalene, and PPO. The phase behavior of this system is mapped to delineate homogeneous-mixture domains and to estimate practical upper bounds on tellurium loading. Optical properties are characterized by UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. The scintillation light yield is obtained with a relative method that compares to a reference LAB-PPO scintillator. The measurements demonstrate scintillation quenching induced by water and by tellurium acid. These results provide benchmarks for water-containing and surfactant-free formulations and support the development of high-loading liquid scintillators for future detector design.