Studies on effective atomic numbers and electron densities of alkali metal (I) compounds in aqueous solutions

The linear and mass attenuation coefficients of alkali Metal-I compounds in aqueous solutions have been measured for gamma ray photon energies of 279, 356, 662, 1173 and 1332 keV using narrow beam transmission geometry. The photon beam was highly collimated and overall scatter acceptance angle was 2.24o. The mass attenuation coefficients of the pure alkali Metal-I compounds (solid solutes) have been calculated from the mass attenuation coefficient values of their aqueous solutions using mixture rule. These coefficients were then used to obtain the values of effective atomic number, electron density. Our results have an uncertainty of less than 3%.