title: Molecular structure effects on the post irradiation diffusion in polymer gel dosimeters.
abstract: Polymer gel dosimeters have specific advantages for recording 3D radiation dose distribution in diagnostic and therapeutic medical applications. But, even in systems where the 3D structure is usually maintained for long periods of time after irradiation, it is still not possible to eliminate the diffusion of the different species in the regions of dose gradients within the gel. As a consequence, information of the dose loses quality over time. In the pursuit of a solution and to improve the understanding of this phenomenon a novel system based on itaconic acid and N-N'-methylene-bisacrylamide (BIS) is hereby proposed. Effects of changes in the chemical structure of the monomers over the dosimetric sensitivity and over the post-irradiation diffusion of species was studied. In this study, one of the carboxylic groups of the itaconic acid molecule was modified with aniline to obtain molecules with similar reactivity but different molecular sizes. Then, dosimeters based on these modified species and on the original ITA molecules were irradiated in an X-ray tomography apparatus at different doses up to 173Gy. Afterwards, the resulting dosimeters were characterized by Raman spectroscopy and optical absorbance in order to study their feasibility and capabilities as dosimetric systems, and by optical-CT to analyze the post irradiation diffusion.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; CONICET, Argentina; Laboratorio de Investigación e Instrumentación en Física Aplicada a la Medicina e Imágenes por Rayos X (LIIFAMIR(x))- Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina. Electronic address: fmattea@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Facundo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mattea
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; CONICET, Argentina.
authors.forename: Marcelo R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Investigación e Instrumentación en Física Aplicada a la Medicina e Imágenes por Rayos X (LIIFAMIR(x))- Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vedelago
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina; Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Centro de Investigación y Estudios de Matemática de Córdoba; CONICET, Argentina.
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quiroga
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Investigación e Instrumentación en Física Aplicada a la Medicina e Imágenes por Rayos X (LIIFAMIR(x))- Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; CONICET, Argentina.
authors.forename: Miriam C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Strumia
keywords: Diffusion; Dosimetry; Itaconic acid; Polymer gel dosimeter