Chemical composition, effective atomic number and electron density study of

trommel sieve waste (TSW), Portland cement, lime, pointing and their
admixtures with TSW in different proportions
Murat Kurudirek

, Murat Aygun, Salih Zeki Erzeneo

glu
Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, Ataturk University, 25240, Erzurum-Turkey
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 22 December 2009
Accepted 22 December 2009
Keywords:
Trommel sieve waste
Building material
Total mass attenuation coefcient
Total photon interaction cross section
Effective atomic number
Effective electron density
a b s t r a c t
The trommel sieve waste (TSW) which forms during the boron ore production is considered to be a
promising building material with its use as an admixture with Portland cement and is considered to be
an alternative radiation shielding material, also. Thus, having knowledge on the chemical composition
and radiation interaction properties of TSW as compared to other building materials is of importance. In
the present study, chemical compositions of the materials used have been determined using a
wavelength dispersive X-ray uorescence spectrometer (WDXRFS). Also, TSW, some commonly used
building materials (Portland cement, lime and pointing) and their admixtures with TSW have been
investigated in terms of total mass attenuation coefcients (m=r), photon interaction cross sections (s
t
),
effective atomic numbers Z
eff
and effective electron densities N
e
by using X-rays at 22.1, 25keV and
g-rays at 88keV photon energies. Possible conclusions were drawn with respect to the variations in
photon energy and chemical composition.
& 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Boron which is known to be found in nature especially in
boron reserves has been abundantly deposited in Turkey where
the boron reserves constitute about 54% of all boron reserves
available in the world. It has a large use in many technological
applications especially in industry, medicine and radiation
physics. However, during the boron ore production the trommel
sieve waste which has an amount of about 2.510
5
ton/yr forms
in the reactor (Boncukc-uo

glu et al., 2005). Boron compounds in

this waste discharged to land are dissolved by rain water, and
pass to soil where they form some complexes with heavy metals
such as Pb, Cu, Co, Ni, Cd, etc., so that the potential toxicity of
these metals increases, and causes some serious health and
environmental problems when the complexes pass to ground-
water (Boncukc-uoglu et al., 2002a). Due to the release of high
amount of TSW which is formed during boron ore production,
some alternative uses of this waste should be provided to
minimize the toxicity release and therefore to minimize the
health and environmental problems originating from the release
of this waste.
Many attempts have been made to utilize the boron wastes for
making cementitious binders, and also to stabilize the boron
wastes with different building materials (Boncukc-uo

glu et al.,
2002b; Singh and Garg, 1999; Erdogan et al., 1994; Boncukc-uoglu
et al., 1998). Element or oxide component concentration deter-
mination in TSW and building materials is of vital importance
because of the fact that their admixtures in different percentages
were used as alternative building materials. Thus, having knowl-
edge on the elemental or oxide composition of these materials
may be used to estimate the effect of each oxide component to
some physical, chemical and mechanical properties of concrete.
Using a multi-element technique capable of determining element
and oxide concentrations simultaneously will be more preferable
because a large number of elements are routinely analyzed in
various types of materials. The easy preparation of sample, small
amount of sample needed for analysis, fast determination, easily
automated procedure and non-destructive methodology make
XRF the method of choice for many industrial, biological,
medicalyetc. analyses. In the present study, the chemical
compositions of the used materials were determined by wave-
length dispersive X-ray uorescence (WDXRF) technique.
Apart from the use as building material, the Portland cement,
lime, pointing and their mixes with TSW are of interest in
radiation shielding. From this point of view, it is of importance to
determine the radiation interaction parameters in these materials
in terms of total mass attenuation coefcients, photon interaction
cross sections, effective atomic numbers and effective electron
densities. These parameters are generally used to determine the
penetration of X-ray and gamma ray photons in matter.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apradiso
Applied Radiation and Isotopes
0969-8043/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2009.12.039

Corresponding author. Tel.: +904422314167; fax: +904422360948.

E-mail address: mkurudirek@gmail.com (M. Kurudirek).
Applied Radiation and Isotopes 68 (2010) 10061011
ARTICLE IN PRESS
For a multi-element material, the attenuation of X- and/or
g-photons is also related to the density and effective atomic
number. Effective atomic number has a physical meaning
and gives basic information about the characteristics of a
multi-element material. Effective atomic number Z
eff
is related
to the radiation interaction with matter and is useful in some
applications such as designing radiation shielding, computing
absorbed dose and build-up factor. In some cases, in order to
have an initial information about the chemical composition of a
material the Z
eff
can also be utilized. For example the materials
having large Z
eff
generally correspond to the inorganic compounds
and metals, while a small Z
eff
(r10) is an indicator of
organic substances (Manohara et al., 2008a). It was pointed out
by Hine that the effective atomic number cannot be expressed by
a single number due to the different partial interaction processes
at different energy regions and the various atomic numbers
present in the compound have to be weighted differently
(Hine, 1952).
_
Ic-elli et al. (2008) have reached a conclusion from the
observation of total mass attenuation coefcients, effective
atomic numbers and effective electron densities for some boron
compounds and TSW using a direct method that the mixture rule
is not valid for those composite materials at some photon
energies. Bhandal and Singh (1993) have studied photon attenua-
tion coefcients and effective atomic numbers for cements in the
energy range of 10
3
10
5
MeV and they have found appreciable
variations in the effective atomic number for total and partial
photon interaction process as a function of energy and elemental
composition. Also, some other researchers have investigated
alternative materials to be used as shielding materials such as
bismuth borate and bariumborateyash glasses (Singh et al.,
2002, 2008). Recently, the photon interaction coefcients
have been investigated in terms of mass attenuation coefcient,
effective atomic and electron number for 3d alloys at different
energies for the rst time (Han and Demir, 2009). Besides,
there has been a tremendous interest in determining the
effective atomic numbers and effective electron densities
for biological media (Gowda et al., 2005; Manohara and
Hanagodimath, 2007).
In the present study, aims are (1) to determine chemical
composition of TSW and some building materials (Portland
cement, lime, pointing) using non destructive WDXRF technique,
and (2) to investigate these materials and their mixes with TSW in
terms of total mass attenuation coefcients, total photon inter-
action cross sections, effective atomic numbers and effective
electron densities, to understand the potential of these materials
to be used in radiation shielding.
2. Theory
In case of a multi-element material (i.e. chemical compound or
homogeneous mixture) constituting the sample, the mass
attenuation coefcient can be obtained from the coefcients for
the constituent elements which are assumed to be additive
according to the weighted average
m=r
X
i
w
i
m=r
i
1
where w
i
is the proportion by weight of the ith constituent
element. This well-known mixture rule is valid with the
assumption that the effects of molecular binding and the chemical
and crystalline environment are negligible.
The total atomic cross section can be obtained by dividing the
mass attenuation coefcient m=rcm
2
=g of the given material by
the total number of atoms present in 1g of that compound as
follows:
s
a

m=r
c
N
A
P
i
w
i
=A
i
b=atom 2
where m=r
c
is the mass attenuation coefcient of the material
and A
i
is the atomic weight of the ith element.
The attenuation cross section values of TSW and building
materials were then interpolated in the attenuation cross section
values generated from WinXCom at the selected energy to
calculate the effective atomic number (Z
eff
) using the following
logarithmic interpolation formula (Singh et al., 2007)
Z
eff

Z
1
logs
2
logs Z
2
logslogs
1

logs
2
logs
1
3
where s
1
and s
2
are the elemental cross sections b=atom in
between which the atomic cross section s of the material lies and
Z
1
and Z
2
are the atomic numbers of the elements corresponding
to the cross sections s
1
and s
2
, respectively.
Also, the effective electron density is expressed by the
following relation (Manohara et al., 2008b);
N
E
N
A
nZ
eff
P
i
n
i
A
i
N
A
Z
eff
/AS
electrons=g 4
where /AS is the average atomic mass of the material. Thus,
using the values of Z
eff
obtained from logarithmic interpolation in
Eq. (4), one can calculate the values of N
e
by using Eq. (4).
3. Calculations
Mass attenuation coefcients of the given materials have been
calculated by the WinXCom program. This program which is
based on the DOS-based compilation XCom (Berger and Hubbell,
19871999) provides total mass attenuation coefcient and total
attenuation cross section data for about 100 elements as well as
partial cross sections for incoherent and coherent scattering,
photoelectric absorption and pair production at energies from
1keV to 100GeV (Gerward et al., 2004). The obtained values of
mass attenuation coefcients were then used to calculate total
interaction cross sections, effective atomic numbers and effective
electron densities. To get more accurate theoretical estimations,
the concentration values of components present in the TSW and
building materials which were experimentally determined by
wavelength dispersive X-ray uorescence spectrometer in this
study were used.
4. Experimental
4.1. Sample preparation
The samples were ground in a SPEX mill with 25ml stainless-
steel cup and balls to minimize the grain sizes and therefore to
reduce the particle size effect on the X-ray intensity. Samples
were sieved in o45mm scaled sieves to ensure particle size
homogeneity in the sample. Prior to analysis, samples were
pressed into pellets having a diameter of 3.1cm under the
pressure of 20ton per cm
2
in a SPEX Pmax hydraulic press. This
progress provided a fairly smooth surface and so minimized the
errors originated from improper surface of samples.
4.2. Measurements
4.2.1. WDXRFS
Elements, in a wide range, from Be to U, can be analyzed in a
variety of sample types and in the concentration range from 100%
M. Kurudirek et al. / Applied Radiation and Isotopes 68 (2010) 10061011 1007
ARTICLE IN PRESS
down to the sub-ppm-level. Samples were exposed to X-rays from
a rhodium tube. The measurements were carried out using a
Rigaku ZSX 100e wavelength dispersive X-ray uorescence
spectrometer with a rhodium target X-ray tube controlled by a
computer system, 4kW generator, a rotating twelve-position
sample holder, ten-position crystal changer, proportional ow
gas and scintillation detection (Fig. 1). All the experimental
parameters were selected and operated via computer except for
the sample preparation. Samples were analyzed in vacuum
atmosphere without exposing to any chemical treatment. Each
samples was analyzed three times to increase sensitivity. All
results were expressed in terms of mean7standard deviation.
4.2.1.1. SQX advanced semi-quantitative software. When the ele-
ments or oxides present in a sample are unknown, a qualitative
analysis is generally carried out to determine the unknown
components in the sample. Semi-quantitative analysis is a quali-
tative analysis that carries out quantication to some extent.
Rigaku
1
has improved their semi-quantitative software package
further with the introduction of SQX. A fundamental parameters
program to calculate semi-quantitative analysis values using
built-in sensitivity libraries for components detected by the
qualitative analysis is called SQX.
Reference X-ray intensities are necessary for the X-ray
uorescence analysis. Standard samples are generally used to
create calibration curves, but in some cases standard samples that
have concentrations similar to those of unknown samples are not
available. In such cases, the fundamental parameters quantica-
tion method can be used to perform quantitative analyses without
standard samples. When components in a sample and their
concentrations are given, theoretical X-ray intensities can be
calculated. This is called the fundamental parameters method.
The spectrometer sensitivities are obtained from the results of a
sensitivity calculation using the fundamental parameters method.
Sensitivity library is consisted of the collection of those spectro-
meter sensitivity values.
The detection limits were expressed as instrumental limits of
detection (ILD) which is dened as being the minimum net peak
intensity of an analyte, expressed in concentration unit that can
be detected by an instrument in a given analytical context with a
%99.95 condence level (Rousseao, 2001). The following mathe-
matical expression was used to calculate the limits of detection;
ILD
4:65
m
i

I
b
T
b
s
5
where m
i
; I
b
and T
b
are the slope of the sensitivity of the
spectrometer in cps/% for an analyte i, background intensity and
background counting time, respectively (Rousseao, 2001). Table 1
shows concentration values with standard deviations from mean
values.
4.2.2. Transmission experiments
In the present study, the total mass attenuation coefcients
[m=rcm
2
=g] of the given materials were measured by perform-
ing transmission experiments in a narrow beam good geometry
set-up. The beam path was aligned using a laser. The photons
emitted from the radioactive point source
109
Cd of 5mCi
(135MBq) strength were well collimated and suitably detected.
A high resolution liquid nitrogen cooled Si(Li) detector
(FWHM=160eV for the Mn-Ka line at 5.9keV, an active area of
12mm
2
, a sensitive crystal depth of 3mm, a beryllium window of
0.025mm thickness) coupled to 4k multichannel analyzer was
employed to detect 22.1, 25 and 88keV. The detector was
shielded by a graded lter of Pb (4.2mm), Fe (1.1mm) and
Al (1mm) to prevent radiation scattered by nearby objects and
also radiation such as L X-rays from the Pb mask, environmental
background and background arising from the scattered radiation
due to sample holder. The spectra were recorded using a PC-based
multichannel analyzer, supplied by CANBERRA, USA. The mea-
surements were performed three times for each sample. Each
spectrum was recorded for sufcient time to accumulate an
adequate number of counts under the photo peak to limit the
uncertainty of o1%. The samples were placed one by one
between the source and the detector.
The maximum errors in total mass attenuation coefcients
were calculated from errors in incident (I
0
) and transmitted (I)
intensities and areal density (t) using the propagation of error
formula
D
m
r

1
t

DI
0
I
0

2

DI
I

2
In
I
0
I

2
Dt
t

2
s
6
where DI
0
, DI and Dt are the errors in the intensities I
0
, I and
thickness t of the sample, respectively. Estimated error in the
experimental measurement was less than 10%.
5. Results and discussion
The experimental values of the total mass attenuation
coefcients obtained from the measured incident (I
0
) and
transmitted (I) X- and g-ray intensities are enlisted in Table 2
along with the theoretical values, calculated using the WinXCom
computer program. In general, the experimental values show
good agreement with the theoretical values within the estimated
error 010%. Some disagreements in m=r values were observed for
Portland cement at 22.1 and 25keV between the experimental
and theoretical values. These discrepancies may be due to the
chemical composition of this material which has oxide
components consisting of elements of very wide spread atomic
Detector
X Ray Tube
Filter
Analyzing Crystal
Primary
Collimator
Secondary
Collimator
Counter
Computer
Sample
2
Fig. 1. Schematic design of WDXRFS.
1
www.rigakumsc.com.
M. Kurudirek et al. / Applied Radiation and Isotopes 68 (2010) 10061011 1008
ARTICLE IN PRESS
numbers and weight fractions of oxide components which vary
from 60% (CaO) down to 16ppm (Ga
2
O
3
). The m=r values were in
general found to be lower along with the increasing photon
energies. This may be attributed to the higher atomic number of
Ca which is more abundant in this material and leads to a higher
density value of lime among the other materials. The m=r values
of TSW were minimum at all energies. This may be due to the
lower weight fraction of Ca present in the TSW material according
to other building materials. For low energies the variations in m=r
are signicant among the given materials due to the domination
of photoelectric process which is of the order of Z
45
.
The experimental total atomic cross sections are listed in
Table 3 along with the theoretical values, as obtained by Eq. (2). It
is observed from Table 3 that the materials having high atomic
number constituent elements with high weight fractions have
signicantly higher values of total interaction cross sections than
other materials. The lime material has the highest value of total
atomic cross sections due to having large weight fractions of Ca as
a constituent element which is a high atomic number element
relative to other elements. One explanation for this could be that
the photoelectric effect is the dominant interaction process for
low energy and high Z elements. The photoelectric cross section is
a Z dependent parameter which is of the order of Z
45
. This state
clearly explains the higher values of total interaction cross
sections for materials having high Z constituent elements with
high weight fractions at 22.1 and 25keV.
Table 4 presents the effective atomic numbers for TSW,
Portland cement, pointing and lime material at different
energies. The value of effective atomic number Z
eff
ranges from
11.5 to 14.1 at 22.1keV, 11.4 to 14.1 at 25keV and 9.4 to 11.9 at
88keV for the given materials. Also, the effective atomic numbers
of Portland cement, lime and pointing material mixed with TSW
in different proportions (25%, 50% and 75%) were tabulated in
Table 1
Chemical composition (%) of TSW, Portland cement, pointing and lime.
Chemical compound TSW P. Cement Pointing Lime
B
2
O
3
13.345870.2816 4.612870.0202 4.951871.1127 3.439770.1390
F 1.027770.0102 0.281170.0154 0.000070.0000 0.250570.2190
Na
2
O 3.072770.0088 0.322470.0074 0.127470.0253 0.034770.0045
MgO 27.214970.1449 3.354270.0015 1.019770.0725 0.66270.0087
Al
2
O
3
1.238970.0108 5.047270.0296 1.988770.0203 0.150870.0021
SiO
2
21.996170.1201 17.872870.0092 9.863270.0383 0.499170.0012
P
2
O
5
0.009970.0002 0.086470.0009 0.035770.0006 0.030270.0005
SO
3
0.580070.0056 3.772570.0023 1.947670.0039 0.664870.0045
Cl 0.095870.0247 0.046370.0054 0.043770.0052 0.033270.0092
K
2
O 0.846770.0065 0.799070.0043 0.243770.0058 0.045070.0005
CaO 28.039870.0555 60.044170.0410 79.519670.7137 93.980270.3495
TiO
2
0.035470.0036 0.296670.0030 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000
Cr
2
O
3
0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000
MnO 0.020070.0006 0.058870.0248 0.000070.0000 0.021570.0012
Fe
2
O
3
0.406770.0075 3.058470.0518 0.190970.0094 0.081770.0011
NiO 0.004570.0008 0.061370.0018 0.000070.0000 0.008270.0011
CuO 0.000070.0000 0.044770.0001 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000
ZnO 0.001470.0012 0.005670.0011 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000
Ga
2
O
3
0.000070.0000 0.001670.0023 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000
GeO
2
0.004770.0008 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000
As
2
O
3
0.012170.0030 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000 0.001370.0012
Rb
2
O 0.023270.0030 0.001870.0011 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000
SrO 2.014470.0228 0.124370.0008 0.055770.0043 0.036770.0004
PbO 0.001170.0009 0.007970.0009 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000
Y
2
O
3
0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000 0.001470.0013
BaO 0.000070.0000 0.051470.0021 0.000070.0000 0.041970.0022
V
2
O
5
0.000070.0000 0.006170.0042 0.000070.0000 0.031770.0006
ZrO
2
0.000070.0000 0.000070.0000 0.012570.0018 0.000070.0000
Table 2
Total mass attenuation coefcients of TSW and building materials at different
energies.
Energy (keV) Total mass attenuation coefcient [m=r cm
2
=g]
TSW Portland cement Pointing Lime
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 2.44 2.33 4.42 3.96 4.51 4.14 4.86 4.43
25 1.73 1.67 3.20 2.81 3.22 2.93 3.40 3.14
88 0.181 0.189 0.210 0.216 0.200 0.218 0.214 0.223
Table 3
Total photon interaction cross sections of TSW and building materials at different
energies.
Energy (keV) Total photon interaction cross section [s
a
(b/atom)]
TSW Portland
cement
Pointing Lime
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 71.13 67.92 147.01 131.71 149.07 136.84 163.45 148.99
25 50.43 67.92 106.43 93.46 106.43 96.84 114.35 105.6
88 5.28 5.51 6.98 7.18 6.61 7.21 7.2 7.5
Table 4
Effective atomic numbers of TSW and building materials at different energies.
Energy (keV) Effective atomic number (Z
eff
)
TSW Portland cement Pointing Lime
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 11.47 11.33 13.72 13.39 13.77 13.45 14.12 13.77
25 11.44 12.39 13.81 13.41 13.81 13.45 14.09 13.78
88 9.42 9.75 11.64 11.86 11.17 11.89 11.88 12.20
M. Kurudirek et al. / Applied Radiation and Isotopes 68 (2010) 10061011 1009
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 5. It was observed from Table 5 that mixing of TSW with
other building materials shows worse properties with respect to
the radiation attenuation properties as the materials mixed with
TSW have lower values of effective atomic numbers as compared
to Portland cement, lime and pointing. According to Hines
expressions (Hine, 1952), the effective atomic number of a
material composed of several elements cannot be expressed by
a single number, it can be concluded that it is an energy
dependent parameter due to the different partial photon
interaction processes with matter for which the various atomic
numbers in the material have to be weighted differently. From the
results, it can be concluded that the effective atomic numbers of
TSW, Portland cement, pointing and lime vary with photon
energy. The effective atomic numbers were found to decrease
with increasing photon energy for TSW, Portland cement, pointing
and lime material.
It has been observed that the variation in Z
eff
depends also on
the range of atomic numbers of elements of which the TSW and
building materials are composed besides the relative proportion.
For a particular value of the incident photon energy, the Z
eff

values were found to increase with the presence of high amount

of Ca in the given materials. The maximum values of Z
eff
that the
lime material has may be due to the highest weight fraction of Ca
present in this material.
The values of the effective electron densities, N
e
, calculated
by the use of Eq. (4) are given in Table 6. Also, the effective
electron densities for TSW mixed building materials have been
determined and listed in Table 7 along with the theoretically
obtained values. The decreasing trends observed are almost
similar to the trends observed for effective atomic numbers. It
can be clearly seen that there is no straight-line relationship
between composition of the given materials and effective electron
densities.
6. Conclusions
Following conclusions can be extracted from the present
investigation;
WDXRF method was found to be a non destructive and readily
applicable method for simultaneous determination of ele-
ments and oxides present in the multi-element materials such
as TSW, Portland cement, pointing and lime.
Trommel sieve waste, Portland cement, lime and pointing have
been investigated in terms of total mass attenuation coef-
cients (m/r), photon interaction cross sections (s
t
), effective
atomic numbers Z
eff
and effective electron densities N
e
by
using X- and g-rays at 22.1, 25 and 88keV photon energies.
The lime material has the maximum values of total mass
attenuation coefcients at all energies whereas the TSW
material has the minimum values of mass attenuation
coefcients at all energies. Thus, it is recommended
that mixing of lime material with Portland cement instead of
mixing TSW material with Portland cement should be
reasonable due to the high capability of lime material with
respect to the photon attenuation when compared to TSW
material.
The effective atomic numbers were found to vary with both
photon energy and chemical composition whereas the effec-
tive electron densities were found to vary with photon energy
but not with a straight-line relationship if related to the
chemical composition.
Moreover, further investigations of photon interaction para-
meters on different composite materials at different energy
regions will throw more light on the conrmation of the
Table 5
Effective atomic numbers of building materials mixed with TSW at different
proportions.
Energy (keV) Effective atomic number (Z
eff
)
Portland cement %25 TSW %50 TSW %75 TSW
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 11.47 11.33 13.30 12.68 12.91 12.22 12.29 11.75
25 11.44 12.39 13.30 12.69 12.92 12.23 12.25 11.76
88 9.42 9.75 10.49 10.98 11.17 10.57 8.28 10.10
Lime %25 TSW %50 TSW %75 TSW
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 14.12 13.77 13.46 13.12 12.73 12.50 12.31 11.88
25 14.09 13.78 13.44 13.12 12.81 12.51 12.45 11.89
88 11.88 12.20 9.24 11.41 10.45 10.72 9.93 10.14
Pointing %25 TSW %50 TSW %75 TSW
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 13.77 13.45 13.04 12.88 12.09 12.24 12.36 11.77
25 13.81 13.45 13.12 12.89 12.15 12.25 12.41 11.77
88 11.17 11.89 11.10 11.15 9.00 10.51 10.55 10.12
Table 6
Effective electron densities for TSW and building materials at different energies.
Energy (keV) Effective electron density [N
e
( 10
23
) (electrons/g)]
TSW Portland cement Pointing Lime
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 3.39 3.35 3.34 3.26 3.38 3.30 3.38 3.29
25 3.38 3.66 3.36 3.26 3.39 3.30 3.37 3.30
88 2.79 2.88 2.83 2.88 2.74 2.92 2.84 2.92
Table 7
Effective electron densities for building materials mixed with TSW at different
proportions.
Energy (keV) Effective electron density [N
e
( 10
23
) (electrons/g)]
Portland cement %25 TSW %50 TSW %75 TSW
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 3.34 3.26 3.38 3.23 3.44 3.26 3.45 3.30
25 3.36 3.26 3.39 3.23 3.45 3.26 3.44 3.30
88 2.83 2.88 2.67 2.79 2.98 2.82 2.32 2.83
Lime %25 TSW %50 TSW %75 TSW
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 3.38 3.29 3.38 3.30 3.37 3.30 3.44 3.32
25 3.37 3.30 3.37 3.30 3.39 3.31 3.48 3.32
88 2.84 2.92 2.32 2.86 2.76 2.84 2.77 2.83
Pointing %25 TSW %50 TSW %75 TSW
Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo. Exp. Theo.
22.1 3.34 3.26 3.34 3.30 3.24 3.28 3.48 3.31
25 3.36 3.26 3.36 3.30 3.26 3.28 3.49 3.31
88 2.83 2.88 2.84 2.86 2.41 2.82 2.97 2.85
M. Kurudirek et al. / Applied Radiation and Isotopes 68 (2010) 10061011 1010
ARTICLE IN PRESS
variations in those parameters with respect to the energy and
chemical composition.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Professor L. Gerward of the
Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark for
providing them with the WinXCom program.
References
Berger, M.J., Hubbell, J.H., 19871999. XCOM: Photon Cross Sections Database.
Web Version 1.2, available at http://physics.nist.gov/xcom, National Institute
of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA, August 1999.
Originally published as NBSIR 87-3597, XCOM: Photon Cross Sections on a
Personal Computer (July 1987).
Bhandal, G.S., Singh, K., 1993. Photon attenuation coefcient and effective atomic
number study of cements. Appl. Radiat. Isot. 44, 12311243.
Boncukc-uo

glu, R.,
_
Ic-elli, O., Erzeneo

glu, S., Kocakerim, M.M., 2005. Comparison of

radioactive transmission and mechanical properties of Portland cement and a
modied cement with trommel sieve waste Cem. Concr. Res. 35, 10821087.
Boncukc-uoglu, R., Kocakerim, M.M., Yilmaz, M.T., Tosunoglu, V., 2002a. Utilization
of borogypsum as set retarder in Portland cement production. Cem. Concr. Res.
32, 471475.
Boncukc-uoglu, R., Kocakerim, M.M., Alkan, M., 1998. Borax production from slime
an industrial waste. Water Air Soil Pollut. 104, 103112.
Boncukc-uo

glu, R., Ylmaz, M.T., Kocakerim, M.M., Tosuno

glu, V., 2002b. Utilization

of trommel sieve waste as an additive in Portland cement production. Cem.
Concr. Res. 32, 3539.
Erdogan, Y., Demirbas, A., Genc, H., 1994. Partly-rened chemical by-product
gypsums as cement additives. Cem. Concr. Res. 24, 601.
Gerward, L., Guilbert, N., Jensen, K.B., Levring, H., 2004. WinXComa program
for calculating X-ray attenuation coefcients. Radiat. Phys. Chem. 71,
653654.
Gowda, S., Krishnaveni, S., Gowda, R., 2005. Studies on effective atomic numbers
and electron densities in amino acids and sugars in the energy range 30
1333keV. Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. B 239, 361369.
Han, I., Demir, L., 2009. Determination of mass attenuation coefcients, effective
atomic and electron numbers for Cr, Fe and Ni alloys at different energies.
Nucl. Instr. Meth. B 267, 3.
Hine, G.J., 1952. The effective atomic numbers of materials for various gamma
interactions. Phys. Rev. 85, 725.
_
Ic-elli, O., Erzeneo

glu, S., Boncukc- uo

glu, R., 2008. Determination of molecular,

atomic, electronic cross-sections and effective atomic number of some boron
compounds and TSW. Nucl. Instr. Meth. B 266, 3226.
Manohara, S.R., Hanagodimath, S.M., 2007. Studies on effective atomic numbers
and electron densities of essential amino acids in the energy range 1keV
100GeV. Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. B 258, 321328.
Manohara, S.R., Hanagodimath, S.M., Gerward, L., 2008a. Studies on effective
atomic number, electron density and kerma for some fatty acids and
carbohydrates. Phys. Med. Biol. 53, 377386.
Manohara, S.R., Hanagodimath, S.M., Thind, K.S., Gerward, L., 2008b. On the
effective atomic number and electron density: a comprehensive set of
formulas for all types of materials and energies above 1keV. Nucl. Instr.
Meth. B 266, 3906.
Rousseao, M.R., 2001. Detection limit and estimate of uncertainty of analytical XRF
results. The Rigaku J. 18, 3347.
Singh, M., Garg, M., 1999. Cementitious binder from y ash and other industrial
wastes. Cem. Concr. Res. 29, 309314.
Singh, T., Kaur, P., Singh, P.S., 2007. A study of photon interaction parameters in
some commonly used solvents. J. Radiol. Protection 27, 7985.
Singh, S., Kumar, A., Singh, D., Thind, K.S., Mudahar, G.S., 2008. Barium
borateyash glasses: as radiation shielding materials. Nucl. Instr. Meth. B
266, 140.
Singh, K., Singh, H., Sharma, V., Nathuram, R., Khanna, A., Kumar, R., Bhatti, S.S.,
Sahota, H.S., 2002. Gamma-ray attenuation coefcients in bismuth borate
glasses. Nucl. Instr. Meth. B 194, 1.
M. Kurudirek et al. / Applied Radiation and Isotopes 68 (2010) 10061011 1011