Determination of mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic and electron numbers, mean free paths and kermas for PbO, barite and some boron ores

The total mass attenuation coefficients, mu(m), for PbO, barite, colemanite, tincal and ulexite were determined at 80.1, 302.9, 356.0, 661.7 and 1250.0 key photon energies by using NaI (Tl) scintillation detector. Effective atomic number, Z(eff), effective electron number, N(eff), total atomic cross-section, sigma(t), total electronic cross-section, sigma(e), mean free path, mfp, and kerma relative to air were determined experimentally and theoretically. The theoretical mass attenuation coefficients were estimated using mixture rule. The calculated values were compared with the experimental values for all samples. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.