New alternative equivalent phantom materials developed for radiotherapy applications

Abstract

Abstract This paper reported an eco-friendly natural-based composite phantom equivalent to human body tissues prepared by mangrove wood, soy proteins, sodium hydroxide, and three different amounts of itaconic acid polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin. The probability of photon interactions was comprehensively analyzed using Monte Carlo code EGSnrc PEGS4 simulation in the 0.001-70.0 MeV range and compared with those of water and solid water phantoms. The results showed that the obtained radiation attenuation factors had similar parameters to those of water and other commercially available equivalent materials with χ 2 values (DSF15:SPC15:SPI15 = 0.064:0.099:0.075). Moreover, for the fractional probability of photon interactions computations, no significant difference for Compton scattering interaction was observed for water and solid water phantoms in the selected energies range, demonstrating the consistency of the constructed phantoms. Development of mangrove wood-based tissue equivalent materials under the conditions (DSF/SPC/SPI/NaOH/IA-PAE = 3.0:3.0:1.2:1.0:1.5, 150 kgcm −2 , 180°C, 18 min) could be conducive as potential application in radiotherapy.