A Stable Phantom Material for Optical and Acoustic Imaging.

Establishing tissue-mimicking biophotonic phantom materials that provide long-term stability are imperative to enable the comparison of biomedical imaging devices across vendors and institutions, support the development of internationally recognized standards, and assist the clinical translation of novel technologies. Here, a manufacturing process is presented that results in a stable, low-cost, tissue-mimicking copolymer-in-oil material for use in photoacoustic, optical, and ultrasound standardization efforts. The base material consists of mineral oil and a copolymer with defined Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) numbers. The protocol presented here yields a representative material with a speed of sound c(f) = 1,481 ± 0.4 m·s