Development of a radiation detector using a PET bottle

Plastic scintillators can be easily fabricated at a low cost and applied to nuclear and high-energy physics. In this study, we fabricated 2 x 2 x 0.1 cm³ and 2 x 2 x 1.2 cm³ samples from a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle and checked the possibility of using them as plastic scintillators. We obtained an emission peak similar to that of BC-400, a commercially-available plastic scintillator. We used ²⁰⁷Bi (γ-rays), ⁹⁰Sr (β-ray) and ²⁴¹Am (α-particle) radioactive sources for excitation of the samples. The portable radiation detector based on a recyclable plastic scintillator was tested by using a homemade counterboard. From the obtained results, such as the emission spectrum and the pulse height spectra, we expect this plastic scintillator to be used on a portable detector for different excitation sources.