Characterization of soy-lignin bonded Rhizophora spp. particleboard as substitute phantom material for radiation dosimetric studies – Investigation of CT number, mass attenuation coefficient and effective atomic number

Highlights: • Soy flour and lignin as adhesives for particleboard fabrication. • Linear and mass attenuation coefficient study using X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) configuration study. • Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) was used to determine the Z_eff. • XCOM database was used to compare the value of mass attenuation coefficient. Experimental particleboards are made from Rhizophora spp. wood trunk with three different percentages of lignin and soy flour (0%, 6% and 12%) as adhesives. The objective was to investigate the equivalence of Rhizophora spp. particleboard as phantom material with human soft tissue using Computed Tomography (CT) number. The linear and mass attenuation coefficient of Rhizophora spp. particleboard at low energy range was also explored using X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) configuration technique. Further characterization of the particleboard was performed to determine the effective atomic number, Z_eff using Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX) method. Adhesive-bonded Rhizophora spp. particleboard showed close similarities with water, based on the average CT numbers, electron density calibration curve and the analysis of CT density profile, compared to the binderless particleboard. The effective atomic number obtained from the study indicated that the attenuation properties of all the particleboards at different percentages of adhesives were almost similar to water. The mass attenuation coefficient calculated from XRF configuration technique showed good agreement with water from XCOM database, suggesting its potential as phantom material for radiation study.