Effects of composition interactions on the response of a turnbull blue radiochromic gel dosimeter

• Analysis of the composition that influence TBG dosimeters via the design of experiments.
• Cross interactions between factors in the TBG dosimeters through multi-factor ANOVA.
• Two two-way interactions and one three-way interaction in the TBG dosimeters are significant.

In this study, the Taguchi statistical method was used to design experiments for investigating the effects of interactions among compositions on the performance of a Turnbull blue gel (TBG) radiochromic dosimeter. Four parameters were considered as the design factors: (A) concentration of ferric chloride, (B) concentration of potassium ferricyanide, (C) concentration of sulfuric acid, and (D) amount of gelling agent added. Two levels were selected for each factor. The change in optical absorbance at 695 nm under UVA exposures was monitored to determine the response of the dosimeters. The results showed that the contributions of factors A–D on the absorbance were 20.01%, 23.16%, 27.03%, and 0.49%, respectively. The contributions of significant interaction effects were AC (8.60%), BC (5.61%), and ABC (10.56%). This finding indicated that sulfuric acid (C) was the most influential factor, whereas gelling agent (D) was the least influential factor. Sulfuric acid had an important function in two two-way interactions and one three-way interaction in the response of TBG to UV exposure.