Development of a Methodology for Low-energy X-ray Absorption Correction in Biological Samples Using Radiation Scattering Techniques

Non-destructive techniques with X-ray, such as tomography, radiography and X-ray fluorescence are sensitive to the attenuation coefficient and have a large field of applications in medical as well as industrial area [1,2]. In the case of X-ray fluorescence analysis the knowledge of photon X-ray attenuation coefficients provides important information to obtain the elemental concentration. On the other hand, the mass attenuation coefficient values are determined by transmission methods. So, the use of X-ray scattering can be considered as an alternative to transmission methods. This work proposes a new method for obtain the X-ray absorption curve through superposition peak Rayleigh and Compton scattering of the lines La e Lß of Tungsten (Tungsten L lines of an X-ray tube with W anode). The absorption curve was obtained using standard samples with effective atomic number in the range from 6 to 16. The method were applied in certified samples of bovine liver (NIST 1577B) , milk powder and V-10. The experimental measurements were obtained using the portable system EDXRF of the Nuclear Instrumentation Laboratory (LIN-COPPE/UFRJ) with Tungsten (W) anode.