Abstract
The suitability of the silica sol–gel based coatings for the construction of sol–gel fiberoptics applicators for interstitial light therapy was analyzed in this study. The various applicators were developed: bare core, tapered and so-called ‘zebra’ type. The sol–gel layers were placed on bare fiber core by dip-coating or painting techniques. Various materials were tested: silica sol–gels produced with molar ratios R=5, 15, 32, 50, where molar ratio denotes the number of solvent moles to the number of precursor moles. In this study tetraethoxysilane as a precursor and ethyl alcohol as a solvent were used. The distribution of light scattered from the applicator was examined. It was proved that the radiation pattern strongly depends on the material characteristic ( R ratio), shape of the fiber tip and number of sol–gel coating layers. The most intensive scattering was observed in the case of sol–gel material produced with R=5.
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