ABSTRACT
Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the application of radiation-shielding materials. One promising research avenue involves using free-lead metal oxides/polymer composites, which have been studied for their radiation shielding and characterization properties. This study reinforced the dimethylpolysiloxane (silicone rubber) composites with micro- and nano-sized particles of tin oxide, cadmium oxide, and bismuth oxide as additive materials. The composites were tested with 20 and 50 weight fractions, and their attenuation coefficients were measured using a NaI(TI) detector at gamma-ray energies ranging from 59.54 to 1408.01 keV. Also, the thermal and mechanical properties of the composites were observed and compared with those of free silicone rubber. The results showed that the 50% nano metal oxide/SR composites exhibited better thermal stability and attenuation properties than the other composites, also possessing unique attributes such as lightweight composition and exceptional flexibility. Consequently, this composite material holds immense potential for safeguarding vital organs, including the eyes and gonads, during radiological diagnosis or treatment procedures. Its exceptional ability to absorb a significant portion of incident rays makes it an invaluable asset in the field of radiation protection.
ABSTRACT
Reinforced polymer composites are a recent type of advanced shielding material that has been studied experimentally and theoretically. This work described the protection properties of silicon rubber filled with nano and micro tin oxide (II). These shielding materials are evaluated by parameters such as mass attenuation coefficient, linear attenuation coefficient, mean free path, effective atomic number, and buildup factor. The morphology and mechanical properties of silicon rubber, which is reinforced with tin oxide (II) particles in terms of weight fraction and size, have been studied. The results explain that the mass attenuation coefficient increases as tin oxide (II) concentration increases at a particular photon energy. It was found that the shielding properties of nano tin oxide (II) composites are more effective than micro tin oxide (II) composites against gamma rays. The effective atomic number values increase by increasing tin oxide (II) and so on equivalent atomic number. On the other hand, increasing tin oxide (II) weight fraction led to an increase in buildup factor maximum, which proved that tin oxide (II) concentration has significant effectiveness in radiation protection.
ABSTRACT
In this work, morphological and attenuation parameters of gamma ray protection were studied. Dimethyl polysiloxane (Silicon Rubber) Mixed with micro-size and nano-size lead oxide particles at different weight percentage were prepared. The morphological structure of PbO/SR composites was investigated by SEM test, according to SEM images the nano PbO particles are more uniform micro PbO particles. The radiation attenuation test was carried out using 3" × 3" NaI (TI) detector for (Am-241), (Cs-137), (Co-60), (Ba-133), and (Eu-152). The effect on attenuation property of SR-PbO shown that the increase of PbO filler significantly increases the linear attenuation coefficient and improve the other radiation protection parameters especially at low gamma energy. It's found that a significant agreement between the experimental result and theoretical result from Xcom program. In this study it's found matrix filled with nano-PbO have higher gamma shielding ability compared to micro-PbO matrix at the same filler concentration. It can say that SR-nano PbO has a higher radiation protection than SR-micro PbO compositions.
