Study of the mass attenuation coefficient and effective atomic number for partial interaction processes of polymers (C6H11ON), (C11H21ON), (C6H12) and (C2H4)

The mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) of many polymers, such asPolyamide-6 (C6H11ON(, Nylon 1,1)C11H21ON(, Polymethyl pentane )C6H12(, and High density Polyethylene ) C2H4(, was determined in the available energy range (5.89-2.5*103) KeV using the XCOM code and the Phy-X/PSD program. The values of μ/ρ are higher when the photo-electric effect is dominant in 5.89 KeV of photon energy, but they are almost constant above 0.138 KeV of photon energy when the Compton scattering is dominating. These results showed a good agreement. Partial processes of interaction can explain variations in (μ/ρ) values. The effective atomic number (Zeff) was calculated with the XCOM code for several polymers. Zeff is the highest value in the photo-electric effect zone and is constant or almost constant in the Compton scattering region.