X-ray irradiation induced degradation of cellulose nitrate

Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry was previously proposed to measure the thickness of the cellulose nitrate layer of the commonly used LR 115 solid-state nuclear track detector (SSNTD). The present work is devoted to the investigation whether the X-ray radiation involved in EDXRF spectrometry will induce degradation of the cellulose nitrate. For this purpose, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed to examine the nitrate functions (at the wavenumber 1598 cm−1) and the glycosidic bonds (at 1146 cm−1) for various irradiation time involved in the EDXRF spectrometry. No significant changes were observed even for X-ray irradiation up to 3000 live seconds, which was equivalent for 10 separate scans and should be far more than enough for a determination of the cellulose nitrate layer thickness. Therefore, EDXRF remains a fast and non-destructive method to measure the active layer thickness of the cellulose nitrate SSNTD.