Studies on mass energy-absorption coefficients and effective atomic energy-absorption cross sections for carbohydrates

We measured here the mass attenuation coefficients (mu/rho) of carbohydrates, Esculine (C15H16O9), Sucrose (C12H22O11), Sorbitol (C6H14O6), D-Galactose (C6H12O6), Inositol (C6H12O6), D-Xylose (C5H10O5) covering the energy range from 122 keV up to 1330 keV photon energies by using gamma ray transmission method in a narrow beam good geometry set-up. The gamma-rays were detected using NaI(TI) scintillation detection system with a resolution of 8.2% at 662 keV. The attenuation coefficient data were then used to obtain the total attenuation cross-section (sigma(tot)), molar extinction coefficients (epsilon), mass-energy absorption coefficients (mu(en)/rho) and effective (average) atomic energy-absorption cross section (sigma(a,en)) of the compounds. These values are found to be in good agreement with the theoretical values calculated based on XCOM data. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.