The influence of annealing temperature and heating rate on thermoluminescence properties of nanocrystalline calcium borate powder

Abstract

We have reported the influence of annealing temperature and heating rate on thermoluminescence (TL) properties of nanocrystalline calcium borate, CaB2O4, powder synthesized by solution combustion method. Powder X-ray diffraction experiments were carried out on CaB2O4 to get the crystal phase and size. The samples were annealed using the TLD oven and exposed to cobalt-60 source. TL glow curves were measured and recorded using a Harshaw model 3500 TLD reader. The crystal phase confirmed one major phase of CaB2O4 with 27 nm in size. CaB2O4 has a simple glow curve with only one and a well defined peak at around 150 ? C. TL intensity was higher after annealing the material before irradiation which indicated the importance of annealing. It was found that an annealing temperature at 300 ? C for one hour and the heating rate of 10 ? C s-1 was the best procedure to produce high TL intensity.