Sodium iodide crystals doped with thallium, NaI(Tl), when subjected to ionising radiation, emit photons (scintillate) and are used in scintillation detectors, traditionally in nuclear medicine, geophysics, nuclear physics, environmental measurements, etc. NaI(Tl) is the most widely used scintillation material and has the highest light output. The crystals are usually coupled with a photomultiplier tube, in a hermetically sealed assembly, as sodium iodide is hygroscopic. Fine tuning of some parameters (radiation hardness, afterglow, transparency) can be achieved by varying the conditions of the crystal growth. Crystals with higher level of doping are used in X-ray detectors with high spectrometric quality. Sodium iodide can be used both as single crystals and as polycrystals for this purpose.
Solubility data
Solubility of NaI in various solvents
(g NaI / 100g of solvent at 25°C)