Fabrication of h-BN@PbWO4 with a facile sol-gel method towards enhanced photocatalytic and radiation shielding properties.

Abstract Designing versatile materials for radiation protection is of great significance to the rapid development of nuclear technology. Here, BN@PbWO 4 core-shell particles are successfully prepared via a facile sol-gel method. The structure and morphology of products are determined by XRD, SEM, TEM and FTIR techniques. Compared with PbWO 4 and h-BN, BN@PbWO 4 exhibits much more excellent photocatalytic ability to degrade the organic dye Rhodamine B (RhB). Furthermore, it also has a good ability to jointly shield neutron and gamma radiations, especially better gamma radiation shielding in comparison with PbWO 4. This work provides an integrated solution with the material that could deal with organic wastes and shield complex radiations in nuclear industry. Graphical abstract fx1 Highlights • h-BN@PbWO 4 structures are prepared via sol-gel method. • h-BN@PbWO 4 could shield mixed neutron and gamma radiations. • h-BN@PbWO 4 shows much better photocatalytic activity than PbWO 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]