Dr Maya Al Sid Cheikh


Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry
+44 (0)1483 686844
37 AZ 03

Academic and research departments

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

About

Areas of specialism

Radiochimistry; Analytical Chemistry; Environmental Chemistry; Ecotoxicology; Oceanography

University roles and responsibilities

  • Deputy Radioprotection supervisor (RPS)
  • Leader of the 'Applied RadioIsotope & Environmental Laboratory' (ARIEL)

    My qualifications

    PhD in Geochemistry
    University of Rennes 1, France
    MSc Oceanography Speciality Ecotoxicology
    University of Quebec at Rimouski, Canada
    MSc. in Environmental Analytical Chemistry

    Research project done in LPTC/EPOC University Bordeaux 1
    University of Toulon, France
    BSc. in Physics and Chemistry
    University of Poitiers, France

    Affiliations and memberships

    Associate Member (AMRSC)
    Royal society of chemistry

    Research

    Research interests

    Supervision

    Postgraduate research supervision

    Teaching

    Publications

    Isabel Helen Balbir Braddock, Maya Al Sid Cheikh, Joydip Ghosh, Roma Eve Mulholland, Joseph Gerard O'Neill, Vlad Stolojan, Carol Crean, Stephen Sweeney, Paul Jonathan Sellin (2022)Formamidinium Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocomposite Scintillators, In: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)12(13) Mdpi

    While there is great demand for effective, affordable radiation detectors in various applications, many commonly used scintillators have major drawbacks. Conventional inorganic scintillators have a fixed emission wavelength and require expensive, high-temperature synthesis; plastic scintillators, while fast, inexpensive, and robust, have low atomic numbers, limiting their X-ray stopping power. Formamidinium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals show promise as scintillators due to their high X-ray attenuation coefficient and bright luminescence. Here, we used a room-temperature, solution-growth method to produce mixed-halide FAPbX(3) (X = Cl, Br) nanocrystals with emission wavelengths that can be varied between 403 and 531 nm via adjustments to the halide ratio. The substitution of bromine for increasing amounts of chlorine resulted in violet emission with faster lifetimes, while larger proportions of bromine resulted in green emission with increased luminescence intensity. By loading FAPbBr(3) nanocrystals into a PVT-based plastic scintillator matrix, we produced 1 mm-thick nanocomposite scintillators, which have brighter luminescence than the PVT-based plastic scintillator alone. While nanocomposites such as these are often opaque due to optical scattering from aggregates of the nanoparticles, we used a surface modification technique to improve transmission through the composites. A composite of FAPbBr(3) nanocrystals encapsulated in inert PMMA produced even stronger luminescence, with intensity 3.8 x greater than a comparative FAPbBr(3)/plastic scintillator composite. However, the luminescence decay time of the FAPbBr(3)/PMMA composite was more than 3 x slower than that of the FAPbBr(3)/plastic scintillator composite. We also demonstrate the potential of these lead halide perovskite nanocomposite scintillators for low-cost X-ray imaging applications.

    Additional publications