Effect of composition interactions on the dose response of an N-isopropylacrylamide gel dosimeter

In this study, a two-level full factorial design was used to identify the effects of the interactions between compositions in an N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) gel dosimeter involving the following variables: (A) gelatin, (B) NIPAM, (C) the crosslinker N, N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide (Bis), and (D) the antioxidant tetrakis (hydroxymethyl) phosphonium chloride (THPC). The dose range was from 0 Gy to 5 Gy. Optical computed tomography was used to scan the polymer gel dosimeter. Each component was set to two levels for all four variables, including (A) 4% and 6%, (B) 4% and 6%, (C) 2% and 4%, as well as (D) 5 and 15 mM. Response surface methodology and a central composite design were adopted for the quantitative investigation of the respective interaction effects on the dose response curve of the gel. The results showed that the contributions of the interaction effects, i.e., AB (6.22%), AC (8.38%), AD (7.74%), BC (9.44%), ABC (18.24%), BCD (12.66%), and ABCD (13.4%), were greater than those of the four main effects, accounting for over 76.08% of the total variability. These results also indicated that the NIPAM gel recipe with the highest sensitivity was at 40%C (mass fraction of Bis).