Search

The radiation shielding characteristics of the polyester resin composites reinforced with cerium(iv) oxide (CeO2) have been studied. The prepared composites were pure polyester–resin (Poly/CeO2-0), 90% per weight polyester resin and 10% CeO2 (Poly/CeO2-10), (Poly/CeO2-30), (Poly/CeO2-50), and (Poly/CeO2-60). The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) values for the free polyester and polyester samples with CeO2 were experimentally measured compared with the XCOM data. The experimental LAC value was found to be 0.2377 cm−1 at 0.0595 MeV, which is in good agreement with the calculated value of 0.2454 cm−1. Also, for the same sample, the experimental LAC was found to be 0.1034 cm−1 at 0.662 MeV, showing a good agreement with the calculated value of 0.1057 cm−1. The LAC values for the free polyester, Pol/CeO2-30, and Pol/CeO2-60 are 1.43, 31.82, and 107.77 cm−1 at 0.015 MeV, respectively. The big difference in the LAC values between the composite with 0 and 60% CeO2 is evident. The radiation shielding efficiency (RSE) of the polyester with different amounts of CeO2 was experimentally measured at four energy values. Also, we extended the calculation of RSE at other energy values in the range of 0.015–15 MeV). The exposure buildup factor (EBF) values for the free CeO2 sample and the samples with CeO2 are calculated. The EBF is small at low energies, then increases, and attains a maximum value at moderate energy; the EBF shows a decreasing trend with an increase in the energy.

In this work, the attenuation properties of silicon rubber (SR) composites reinforced by both micro- and nano-sized Tungsten trioxide (WO3) particles are studied. Different SR composites with different combinations of micro-WO3 and nano-WO3 have been prepared. The main composite, SR-(WO3)60m (40% SR containing 60% micro-WO3), and other compositions were prepared by replacing percentages of microparticles with nanoparticles of WO3. The linear attenuation coefficient for these composites was measured in the range of 0.06–1.333 MeV. The existence of micro and nanoparticles together may result in enhanced interactions with incoming photons, leading to greater shielding. In other words, micro-WO3 and nano-WO3 have various sizes and surface areas. At 0.06 MeV, we notice a distinguished decrease in the half value layer (HVL) from SR-W60m to SR-W60n. The sequence of reducing HVL values (SR-(WO3)60m > SR-(WO3)60n > SR-(WO3)40m20n > SR-(WO3)20m40n > SR-(WO3)30m30n) suggest that the inclusion of both micro- and nano-WO3 contributes to more efficient radiation shielding compared to the reference material. The radiation shielding efficiency (RSE) for SR-(WO3)30m30n at 0.662 MeV is 38.40%. This means that if a beam of photons with energy of 0.662 MeV interacts with SR-W40m20n sample, only 38.12% of the photons are successfully absorbed or stopped, whereas the remaining 61.88% can pass through this sample. At 1.333 MeV, the lowest RSE is observed, which means that the prepared composites have weak attenuation ability at higher energy levels.

We fabricated porcelain ceramics embedded with WO3 nanoparticles (NPs) for radiation shielding applications. The linear attenuation coefficients were experimentally determined to study the efficiency of the manufactured samples against gamma rays. When the thickness increases from 0.5 to 2 cm, there is a reduction in the photon transmission through the ceramics. At 0.662 MeV, the transmission factor for Porc-1 changes from 0.91 (thickness: 0.5 cm) to 0.83 (thickness: 1 cm), and to 0.69 (thickness: 2 cm). From I/I 0 results, we found that attenuation performance is improved as the sample thickness increases. We evaluated the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) and examined the influence of the concentration of WO3 NPs on the MAC. We found that Porc-5 which contains a greater quantity of WO3 NPs compared to the other samples has the highest MAC. At 0.06 MeV, the HVL (half value layer) for Porc-1 is 1.063 cm, while at 1.333 MeV this increases to 5.247 cm. Meanwhile, for Porc-2, at 0.06 MeV, a thin layer of thickness 0.806 cm is required to shield 50% of the photons, and at 1.333 MeV, the thickness of the layer must increase to 5.058 cm to shield the photons.

A study was conducted to investigate how the addition of WO3 affects the mechanical, optical, and photon attenuation properties of TeO2–Na2O glass systems. In this study, four glass systems categorized as W5, W10, W15, and W20 were studied to evaluate the impact of WO3 on TeO2–Na2O glass systems in view of the feature of mechanical, optical, and photon attenuation. The rising values of elastic moduli suggest that increasing WO3 on TeO2–Na2O glass systems makes the glassy structure more stable. Incorporating WO3 into TeO2–Na2O glass systems results in an increased energy band gap, rising from 2.83 to 2.95 eV. This phenomenon, in turn, leads to a decrease in the refractive index, dielectric constant, and optical dielectric constant values from 2.444 to 2.411, 5.975 to 5.811, and 4.975 to 4.811, respectively. While the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) of the examined glass systems (W5, W10, W15, and W20) displayed a comparable pattern, the LAC value of glass sample W20 stood out as the highest among them. However, due to the addition of WO3 on the TeO2–Na2O glass system, at a lower energy region from 0.0284 to 0.06 MeV, there was a little variation among the mass attenuation coefficients of these glass systems studied herein, but a negligible variation was found from 0.662 to 2.51 MeV. The studied glass sample W20 with the highest amount of WO3 (20 mol%) on the TeO2–Na2O glass system displayed the lowest half-value layer. However, glass samples W5, W10, and W15 exposed 1.29, 1.07, and 1.03 times higher values of mean free path than W20. In addition, the values of the half-value layer were compared with the literature data of WO3–MoO3–TeO2, BaO–Li2O–B2O3, and CaF2–BaO–P2O5 glass systems. Studied glass sample W20 showed the maximum shielding performance from energy 0.284 to 2.51 MeV.

This study provides insights into the effects of Bi2O3 on the physical, mechanical, and gamma ray shielding properties of Bi2O3–BaO–B2O3–ZnO–As2O3–MgO–Na2O glasses. The higher Bi2O3 concentrations result in increased density and molecular weight of the glasses. The molar volume also increases with higher Bi2O3 percentages, accompanied by a decrease in the average distance between boron atoms and a reduction in polaron radius and inter-nuclear distance. Electronegativity decreases and electronic polarizability increases with increasing Bi2O3 concentration, indicating higher electron-donating capacity and greater susceptibility to external electric field distortion. The elastic moduli exhibit a downward trend with increasing Bi2O3 concentration, indicating a decreased degree of elastic behaviour. The decrease in cross-linking is further supported by the reduction in Poisson’s ratio. The decrease in values of the hardness also indicates a decline in the stiffness and connectivity of the glass network. The linear attenuation coefficients (LACs) of three different glasses were obtained using Phy-X software in 0.015–15 MeV energy range. Also, the effective atomic numbers are calculated for the selected glasses. The LAC has the highest values for Bi21, indicating that the addition of Bi2O3 causes an improvement in the LAC.

A series of polyepoxide resins doped by lead oxide with low concentrations were fabricated in order to study the impacts of low PbO concentrations on the fabricated composites’ physical- and radiation-shielding properties. The epoxide resin was reinforced with the PbO compound with concentrations 0, 5, and 10 wt%. The density measurements affirmed that by elevating the PbO concentration between 0 and 10 wt%, the composites’ density increased from 1.103 to 1.185 g·cm−3. This low-density increase was echoed in the fabricated composites’ radiation-shielding properties, where the Monte Carlo simulation code affirmed a linear attenuation coefficient increase by factors of 230%, 218%, 24%, and 10%, respectively, at 59, 121, 356, and 662 keV. The half-value layer, mean free path, and transmission factor indicated a linear attenuation coefficient enhancement.

In a variety of applications using ionizing radiation, it is essential to ensure the safety of both individuals and equipment. To this end, excellent radiation shielding materials, including glasses and rare earth elements, such as Dy2O3, are currently being researched. The goal of this study is to explore the effect of Dy2O3 on the radiation-shielding properties of the SiO2–PbO–B2O3–Dy2O3 glass system; for clarity, it is abbreviated as Dy-X. Dy2O3 is a good choice for use as a modifier in radiation shielding glasses since it has high density. Additionally, Dy2O3 has good thermal stability and can be added to glass matrices without substantially affecting their physical features. The influence of increasing the amount of Dy2O3 present in the glasses from 0 to 5 mol% on the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) and effective atomic number (Z eff) was studied using glasses with five distinct compositions and densities. In order to achieve this, the Phy-X program was utilized. The results demonstrate that Dy5 (with a composition of 55B2O3–25PbO–20SiO2–5Dy2O3) has the highest LAC value of the prepared glasses, while Dy0 has the lowest. We investigated the influence of Dy2O3 on Z eff at 0.284 MeV. The results show that the Z eff values increase with increasing Dy2O3 content. The Z eff values were found to be 27.35, 27.94, 28.52, 29.09, 29.65, and 30.20 for Dy0, Dy1, Dy2, Dy3, Dy4, and Dy5, respectively. From the Z eff results, we observed that increasing the Dy2O3 content in the samples leads to an improvement in the shielding ability of the glass system. We compared the LAC of the Dy-X glasses with six glass systems at 0.662 MeV. All Dy0–Dy3 glasses have lower LAC values than all the TeO2–Li2O–ZnO glasses, but Dy4 has an LAC value greater than those of three of these glasses.

Epoxy resins with varying amounts of MoO3 were theoretically investigated for their radiation shielding ability at low energies (between 0.0395 and 0.344 MeV). The quantity of MoO3 varied from 0 to 30%, and relevant shielding parameters were obtained and analyzed from Phy-X software. The half value layer (HVL) of the resins demonstrated that increasing MoO3 content improved the space-efficiency of the prepared samples at all tested energies, leading to the Mo4 sample, the epoxy resin with the greatest MoO3 content having the smallest HVL. Additionally, the mean free path of the materials has an inverse relationship with their density, which increased with additional MoO3. The tenth value layer ratio between Mo1 and Mo4 illustrated how the introduction of Mo has a much greater effect on thickness reduction at lower energies than at higher energies due to photoelectric phenomena. The Z eff and N eff parameters showed how the epoxy samples benefitted from the introduction of MoO3 at different energies.

The radiation attenuation characteristics of WO3-Li2O-ZnO-P2O5 glasses have been examined using Phy-X software. The linear attenuation coefficient is correspondingly increased with the inclusion of WO3, which indicates the existence of a reducing tendency in the photon transmission correlating with an increment in the WO3 content in the glasses. When density is increased, there is a considerable reduction in the half-value layer (HVL), which is most noticeable between 80 and 100 keV. Because the HVL reaches high values at 100 keV for the samples, it can be deduced that the HVL steadily increases as the energy increases. Additionally, increasing the amount of WO3 in the glasses causes the mean free path (MFP) to decrease. The MFP for the glasses was compared with that of different heavy concretes, and the comparison demonstrated that the chosen systems have the potential to be used for the fabrication of protection masks that are utilized during diagnostic radiation treatment. We determined the ratio between the tenth value layer for the free-WO3 sample and the sample with 10 mol% and we found that the ratio is higher than 1, which suggests that the tenth value layer is decreased with the addition of WO3 to the glasses.