Determination of Effective Atomic Numbers Using Different Methods for Some Low-Z Materials

Abstract

In the present work, different methods were used to determine the effective atomic numbers of some low-Z materials, namely, polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), Perspex (PX), polycarbonate (PC), nylon 6-6 (PA-6), plaster of Paris (POP), and TH/L2. These methods are the direct method, the interpolation method, Auto-Zeff software, and single value XMuDat computer program. Some of the results obtained were compared with experimental data wherever possible. It can be concluded from this work that the effective atomic numbers calculated with the direct, the interpolation and Auto-Zeff methods demonstrate a good agreement in Compton scattering and pair production energy regions. A large difference in the effective atomic numbers calculated by the direct and the interpolation methods of low-Z materials was also observed in photoelectric and pair production regions. It was determined that PE, PS, PX, and PA-6 were equivalent to adipose and muscle; POP was equivalent to cortical bone; TH/L2 was equivalent to thyroid tissue; PP was equivalent to yellow bone marrow and adipose tissues; PC was equivalent to spongiosa.