Thermoluminescence properties of irradiated commercial color pencils for accidental retrospective dosimetry.
Color pencils are widely used mostly in kindergartens, in schools and could be found in all houses with families having young children. Their wide spread use in modern times as well as their chemical composition, consisting mostly of Si and Al, constitute two strong motivations towards exploiting their use as accidental retrospective thermoluminescent dosimeters. The present manuscript reports on the study of colored pencils manufactured by a commercial brand in China which is very common throughout Turkey. The preliminary results discussed in the present work illustrated encouraging characteristics, such as the presence of a trapping level giving rise to natural TL in a temperature range that is sufficiently high. Specific thermoluminescence features of this peak, such as glow peak shape and analysis, anomalous fading, thermal quenching, reproducibility, linearity and recovery ability to low attributed doses were studied. The results suggest that the color pencils could be effectively used in the framework of retrospective thermoluminescent dosimetry with extreme caution, based on multiple aliquot protocols.
Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Ankara University, Beşevler 06100, Ankara, Turkey.
Niyazi
N
Meriç
Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Ankara University, Beşevler 06100, Ankara, Turkey.
Eren
E
Şahiner
Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Ankara University, Beşevler 06100, Ankara, Turkey.
Aytaç
A
Bariş
Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Ankara University, Beşevler 06100, Ankara, Turkey. Electronic address: gspolymeris@ankara.edu.tr.
George S
GS
Polymeris
D001154:Art; D003116:Color; D003124:Colorimetry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D000069079:Radiation Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018788:Radioactive Hazard Release; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013819:Thermoluminescent Dosimetry / Q000295:instrumentation*