Investigating natural and doped boron minerals using thermoluminescence (TL) method for the purpose of development of a dosimeter

In this study, the dosimetric characteristics of natural and doped boron compounds were investigated by using thermoluminescence technique. The first phase of the study, the natural anhydrous borax samples (Etibor-68, Na2B4O7) were characterized by using analysis of TG/DTA, XRD, XRF and SEM methods. The beta and photon (X-ray) dose response, reproducibility, fading properties, the effect of particle size to the TL glow peaks, suitable annealing temperature and time, effects of the high dose on TL sensitivity and experiments of various heating rate effect of the Na2B4O7 samples can be outlined. The second phase of the study, Na2B4O7:Ag and MgB4O7:Cu,Ag bor compounds were produced using respectively solid-state synthesis reaction and solution combustion synthesis (SCS) methods. Finally, the dosimetric characteristics of doped boron compounds were investigated as in the first phase of the study. Consequently, it was observed that for the samples of Na2B4O7, the effect of previous doses were deleted with annealing at 400oC for 15 minute, the samples of Na2B4O7, Na2B4O7:Ag and MgB4O7:Cu,Ag had linear dose response between ~1 Gy to ~200 Gy, ~9 Gy to ~803 Gy and ~17 Gy to ~134 Gy dose ranges and also all samples were affected the humidity.