The properties and potential uses of the trimesic acid dosimeter

: The trimesic acid dosimeter developed by Matthews is extremely sensitive to ionizing radiation. Tests on the characteristics of this detector show two serious differences to the Fricke dosimeter. With trimesic acid (1, 3, 5-benzentricarboacid) absorbed doses can be detected which are 1000 times smaller than with the Fricke solution. The radiochemical turnover here, as opposed to the Fricke dosimeter, is dependent on the dose rate up to 2.2 Gy/min. With high dose rates the trimesic acid dosimeter is well suitable for thin-layer dosimetry. For example in front of metallic scattering bodies (Al, Ti, Cu, Mo, Ag, W, Pb) exposed to cobalt-60-gamma, 9- and 15-MV bremsstrahlung and electron radiation with initial energies of 6.0, 8.0, 10.0 and 19.45 MeV the back scatter radiation can be measured easily.