Thermoluminescent dosimetric comparison for two different MgB4O7: Dy production routes

There are several routes employed for the production of synthetic magnesium tetraborate, for example, sol-gel method, combustion, wet reaction synthesis, solid-state route and precipitation (crystal growth). The most commonly used synthesis methods are the wet reaction (precipitation) and solid-state synthesis; both production routes are efficient, but is very difficult to find a direct comparison for them. The present work proposes a direct comparison of both production routes used for magnesium tetraborate synthesis for thermoluminescent (TL) dosimetry. In this work, MgB4O7:Dy was prepared by both methods, wet reaction or precipitation-route 1, and solid-state synthesis -route 2, with the same amount of dopant (0.1%). In the first part of work, the crystalline phases were confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and it was observed that MgB4O7:Dy can be obtained satisfactorily through both routes, although a very intense crystalline phase of H3BO3 for the powder produced through route 1 was observed. The dose response curve of MgB4O7 pellets (produced for both routes) presents linear behavior when the materials are irradiated with Co-60 in the dose range of 10-100 Gy. The results showed that both methods produce MgB4O7:Dy efficiently; however, solid-state synthesis produces MgB4O7:Dy more sensitive to gamma radiation. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.