Thermo luminescence studies of Egyptian white sand after gamma ray exposure and its usability for radiation measurements

Abstract EN

Egyptian white sand (WS) samples from north Sinai that used in many applications such as glass industries, optical communications and building materials have been collected and prepared for the measurements of the present study.

The thermoluminescence properties of WS namely; grain size, glow curve, dose response, batch homogeneity and fading effect have been studied by using the thermoluminescence technique (Harshaw-3500 series).

The characterization of WS samples have been estimated using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

The results showed that WS samples have a high concentration of SiO2 (97.96%) and XRD data showed presence of large amount of high crystalline quartz in form of silica that exhibit thermoluminescence.

The glow curves of studied samples have been obtained after irradiation with various γ-doses of (Co-60), ranging from 10 Gy up to 30 kGy.

The glow curve is consisted of three peaks at P1=155 oC, P2 =203 oC and P3=345 oC.

The dose response curve is linear in the range from 600 Gy up to 10 kGy.

A Small shift in the position of three peaks appeared with the change of doses.

Slight decay is observed (≈ 14%) during store for 100 days.

The previous data indicate that white sand could be used for high-doses dosimetry in several areas of applications of ionizing radiation