Seminar

Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, January 26, 2015

Potential Application of Metallic Nanoparticles for Dosimetric Systems

speaker

Oswaldo Baffa
University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

Metallic nanoparticles have been largely explored to increase the delivered dose and consequently enhance tissue radio sensitization in radiation therapy treatments of cancer. The Dose Enhancement Factor (DEF) has been defined as the ratio between the dose deposited on a tissue containing nanoparticles, and the dose deposited on a tissue without nanoparticles. In this sense, we have been investigating how silver and gold nanoparticles affect the dose deposition in alanine dosimeters, as a surrogate of soft tissue, using electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR). Besides, of optimizing the dosimeter's radiation absorption, the optical properties of these metal nanoparticles could also be used to enhance the light emission from materials employed as radiation detectors. Therefore, we are also investigating how the plasmonic properties of noble metal nanoparticles could be useful for improving radiation detection using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimetry. Results about the use of gold and silver nanoparticles for the ESR and OSL dosimetric techniques will be presented and discussed.

Location: 1335 HSLC (Health Sciences Learning Center), 750 Highland Ave., Madison, WI 53705

Time: 4:00pm-5:00pm