title: Polymer gel dosimeters with reduced toxicity: a preliminary investigation of the NMR and optical dose-response using different monomers.
abstract: In this work, three new polymer gel dosimeter recipes were investigated that may be more suitable for widespread applications than polyacrylamide gel dosimeters, since the extremely toxic acrylamide has been replaced with the less harmful monomers N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM), diacetone acrylamide and N-vinylformamide. The new gel dosimeters studied contained gelatin (5 wt%), monomer (3 wt%), N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide crosslinker (3 wt%) and tetrakis (hydroxymethyl) phosphonium chloride antioxidant (10 mM). The NMR response (R2) of the dosimeters was analysed for conditions of varying dose, dose rate, time post-irradiation, and temperature during irradiation and scanning. It was shown that the dose-response behaviour of the NIPAM/Bis gel dosimeter is comparable to that of normoxic polyacrylamide gel (PAGAT) in terms of high dose-sensitivity and low dependence on dose rate and irradiation temperature, within the ranges considered. The dose-response (R2) of NIPAM/Bis appears to be linear over a greater dose range than the PAGAT gel dosimeter. The effects of time post-irradiation (temporal instability) and temperature during NMR scanning on the R2 response were more significant for NIPAM/Bis dosimeters. Diacetone acrylamide and N-vinylformamide gel dosimeters possessed considerably lower dose-sensitivities. The optical dose-response, measured in terms of the attenuation coefficient for each polymer gel dosimeter, showed potential for the use of optical imaging techniques in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont. K7L 3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Senden
authors.affiliation: Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario, Kingston, Ont. K7L 5P9, Canada.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Jean
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont. K7L 3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: McAuley
authors.affiliation: Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario, Kingston, Ont. K7L 5P9, Canada.|Departments of Oncology and Physics, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont. K7L 3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Schreiner
mesh_terms: D000096:Acetone / Q000737:chemistry; D020106:Acrylamide / Q000737:chemistry; D000178:Acrylamides / Q000737:chemistry; D000180:Acrylic Resins / Q000737:chemistry; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D005559:Formamides / Q000737:chemistry; D005780:Gelatin / Q000737:chemistry; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000178:Acrylamides; D000180:Acrylic Resins; D005559:Formamides; D011108:Polymers; C016680:polyacrylamide gels; D000096:Acetone; D020106:Acrylamide; C031066:formamide; D005780:Gelatin; C067295:N-isopropylacrylamide