¹³C-NMR, ¹H-NMR, and FT-Raman study of radiation-induced modifications in radiation dosimetry polymer gels

¹H- and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy and FT-Raman spectroscopy are used to investigate the properties of a polymer gel dosimeter post-irradiation. The polymer gel (PAG) is composed of acrylamide, N,N′-methylene-bisacrylamide, gelatin, and water. The formation of a polyacrylamide network within the gelatin matrix follows a dose dependence nonlinearly correlated to the disappearance of the double bonds from the dissolved monomers within the absorbed dose range of 0-50 Gy. The signal from the gelatin remains constant with irradiation. We show that the NMR spin-spin relaxation times (T₂) of PAGs irradiated to up to 50 Gy measured in a NMR spectrometer and a clinical magnetic resonance imaging scanner can be modeled using the spectroscopic intensity of the growing polymer network. More specifically, we show that the nonlinear T₂ dependence against dose can be understood in terms of the fraction of protons in three different proton pools.