Thermoluminescent dosimetric comparison for two different MgB4O7:Dy production routes

• High doses dosimetry with MgB4O7:Dy.
• Some differences about two different routes of MgB4O7:Dy.
• Wet reaction and solid state synthesis routes for MgB4O7:Dy production.
• The MgB4O7:Dy pellets produced by solid state present some advantages.

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 60Co 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.