Soil samples as a dose sensing element: Preliminary results

In this work, the possibility of exploiting the soil as an X-ray radiation sensor was studied. Different soil samples were irradiated using a 10MeV X-ray beam, and five different delivered dose values in the 0–35 Gy range. The irradiation effect was correlated, through two electrodes inserted inside the soil, to output voltage (Vout) measured by using a specific measurement system. A 4.45% decrease in Vout between the non-irradiated and the 35 Gy-irradiated soil samples was found. This evinces a correlation between Vout, and the dose absorbed by the soil due to the reduction of bacterial activity which, in turn, suggest that the chemoelectrical transduction propriety of the soil could be exploited to produce low-cost, eco-friendly, mimetic, and natural-based radiation sensors.