Physico-mechanical, thermal, morphological and low energy photon attenuation properties of soy protein isolate and defatted soy flour-bonded Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantoms with NaOH/IA-PAE

This study is focused on the fabrication and characterisation of cured soy protein isolate (SPI) and defatted soy flour (DSF)-based Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantoms with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and itaconic acid polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin (IA-PAE) resin. Covalent linkage was evident between IA-PAE and SPI-DSF, and enthalpies of each fraction of soy protein increased, indicating higher thermal stabilities. XRD analysis showed that by increasing the IA-PAE content from 0 wt% to 15 wt%, the crystalline quality of the particleboards improved. NaOH/IA-PAE significantly enhanced the physico-mechanical properties and greatly decreased the dimensional stability properties of the particleboards. The results indicate that there was no significant difference (p-value > 0.05) between the radiation attenuation parameters of SPI- and DSF-based Rhizophora spp. particleboards with the theoretically calculated values of water from the WinXCOM program and demonstrated their potential application as alternative phantom materials for dosimetry work at photon energies range between 16.59 keV and 25.26 keV. © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.