Synergistic Mn/Zn Bimetallic Engineering of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Halide Glasses for Advanced X-Ray Scintillation

Organic-inorganic hybrid metal halide (OIMH) glass combines advantages such as low preparation temperature, high optical transparency, and abundant structural flexibility, making it a promising candidate for high-performance X-ray imaging. However, the recrystallization-induced devitrification hinders its long-term application. Therefore, developing OIMH glass with both high scintillation performance and excellent glass-forming ability remains an important challenge. In this work, we employ a synergistic Mn/Zn bimetallic engineering strategy to enhance the scintillation performance of Mn-based glass by increasing the Mn–Mn distance, improving X-ray absorption ability, and promoting optical transparency. The incorporation of a dimethylamine group onto the phosphonium cation endows (BDMAP) 2 Mn x Zn 1-x Br 4 (BDMAP = benzyl (4-(N, N-dimethylamino) phenyl) diphenylphosphonium) with high glass-transition temperatures (T g >87°C). The optimized (BDMAP) 2 Mn 0.3 Zn 0.7 Br 4 transparent luminescent OIMH glass shows a high light yield (LY) of 18 315 photons/MeV, a low limit of detection (LOD) of 85.05 nGy/s, and an outstanding spatial resolution of 20 lp/mm. Notably, (BDMAP) 2 Mn 0.3 Zn 0.7 Br 4 glass shows no crystallization even after heating at 100°C for 21 weeks, demonstrating strong resistance to recrystallization. This study presents a rational design route for regulating the scintillation performance of OIMH glasses with high stability.