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For the purpose of this study, four natural rock samples-namely, diorite, granodiorite, tonalite, and granite-are being investigated about their radiation attenuation. The elemental composition of the rocks was obtained through Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) which examines the microstructural and localized area elemental analyses of the four rock samples. A Monte Carlo simulation (MCNP) was used to determine and evaluate the investigated samples. Additionally, the samples were validated by Phy-X software (within the energy range of 0.015 to 15 MeV), and experimental measurements were achieved through the utilization of an HPGe detector (0.060, 0.662, 1.173, and 1.332 MeV). The investigation was carried out using various parameters such as linear attenuation (µ) and others. Furthermore, the Fast Neutrons Removal Cross Sections (FNRCS) were calculated using theoretical methods. In the case of granodiorite, tonalite, diorite, and granite, the values of µ were found to range from 7.931 to 0.049, 31.922 to 0.061, 17.267 to 0.060, and 23.860 to 0.056 cm−1, respectively. The samples of tonalite and diorite have the highest µ values due to the presence of heavy elements and the high densities of these samples. Granodiorite is the substance that possesses the highest value of FCS (0.108 cm−1) due to the high content of light elements (O = 0.6802%, and C = 0.2286% wt). The results of the study demonstrated that the investigated natural rocks possessed a substantial potential for shielding γ-rays and neutrons from radiation and could be suitable for use in radiological protection applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the ZnO particle size's effect on glass samples' radiation shielding ability. Four glass samples with differing micro and nanoparticle ZnO content were investigated at four energies, 0.060, 0.662, 1.173, and 1.333 MeV. The investigated glasses are a B2O3–BaO–ZnO glass system and are composed of 30 % micro ZnO (30 M), 20 % micro ZnO and 10 % nano ZnO (20 M−10 N), 10 % micro ZnO and 20 % nano ZnO (10 M−20 N), and lastly 30 % nano ZnO (30 N). The theoretical XCOM software was employed to validate the experimental LAC values of the glasses, revealing that for at all energies, the values obtained from the two methods agreed with each other well. The glasses' HVL, MFP, and RSE were then compared. The HVL values at all energies decreased as more nano ZnO was introduced into the glass system, reaching a minimum of 1.947 cm at 0.662 MeV for the 30 N sample. This sample also had the lowest MFP at all energies, while the 30 M glass had the highest, such as 0.088 and 0.070 for 30 M and 30 N respectively at 0.060 MeV. The RSE of a 1 cm thick sample of each of the glasses was tested and found that the 30 N sample exhibited the greatest RSE. The relative percent deviation between the 30 N and 30 M glasses was also analyzed, which highlighted the difference between 30 N's greater LAC values compared to 30 M at all energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five ceramic samples have been considered termed as S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5 on the purpose of radiation shielding. Ceramic sample S1 specifies pure MgO (100 wt %) with no other addition of Barite (BaSO4), yet another samples S2, S3, S4, and S5 have been considered 10 wt %, 20 wt %, 30 wt %, and 50 wt % of Barite (BaSO4) instead of MgO. Few shielding parameters such as linear attenuation coefficients (LAC), effective atomic number (Zeff), equivalent atomic number (Zeq) and radiation absorption ratio (RAR) were calculated through Geant4 code and experimental technique for the interest of evaluating the radiation shielding strength of the considered ceramic samples. The value of LAC of the considered ceramic samples via Experimental and Geant4 code were found a negligible difference. Considered ceramic samples S5 presents the most suitable radiation shielding capacity comprising rest of the ceramic samples according to the value of LAC for low energy. Considered ceramic sample S5 with the composition of [MgO (50%)- BaSO4 (50%)] were provided lowest value of HVL, TVL, and MFP. Hence, the obvious concern is that greater amount of Barite (BaSO4) lift up the shielding ability MgO ceramic in place of MgO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the experimental and theoretical radiation attenuation, this study produced and tested a composite material made of polyester reinforced with SnO at varied concentrations and abbreviated as Pol-SnOx, where x = 0–60% with steps of 20 wt% Also, the polyester samples were doped with SnO of different particle sizes: Micro, Nano, and 50% Micro/50% Nano mix to investigate the effect of the particle size on the radiation attenuation performance. In the photon energy range of 0.015–15 MeV, their radiation shielding properties were empirically determined using an HPGe detector and theoretically determined using Phy-X/PSD software. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) values dropped from 1.361 to 0.022 cm−1 for Pol-SnO0, from 13.611 to 0.033 cm−1 for Pol-SnO20, from 31.700 to 0.049 cm−1 for Pol-SnO40, and from 61.076 to 0.076 cm−1 for Pol-SnO60 in the photon energy (Eγ) range from 0.015 to 15 MeV. The LAC values of the fabricated Pol-SnOx samples increased as the SnO concentrations increased. Also, the addition of 50% Micro/50% Nano mix particle size of the SnO to the polyester significantly increased the values of the LAC. The percentages of LAC improvement of SnO nano-particles were 16.625%, 13.236%, 8.714%, and 7.935% at the Eγ values of 0.059, 0.661, 1.173, and 1.332 MeV, respectively. Also, the LAC values were enhanced by adding SnO containing 50% Micro/50% Nano mix particles by 19.097%, 15.271%, 9.854%, and 9.071% at the Eγ values of 0.059, 0.661, 1.173, and 1.332 MeV, respectively, when compared to microparticles. The addition of 50% Micro/50% Nano Mix of SnO with 60% content to the polyester showed the highest LAC and radiation protection efficiency and lowest half-value layer and transmission factor among the other samples due to increased SnO doping and interparticle distances of the Micro and Nano mix.

In the present work, an experimental study is performed to study the radiation shielding characteristics of SrTiO3 (STO) perovskite ceramic added with different amounts (x = 0, 2, 5, and 10%) of tungsten trioxide nanoparticles (WO3 NPs). The four ceramic samples were prepared using the solid-state reaction method. The structural properties were examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. The analysis showed the successful formation of WO3- doped STO samples. The crystallite size, estimated using the Scherrer equation, was found in the range of 50.86–41.17 nm. The effect of WO3 NPs on the radiation shielding performance of these ceramics was studied. Different parameters, such as linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) and other related factors, were experimentally determined. The linear attenuation coefficient results demonstrated that the additional amount of WO3 in the ceramics correlates with an improvement in their shielding abilities. The half-value layer (HVL) values for the ceramics with 2% WO3 nanoparticles are equal to 0.071, 1.760, 2.407, and 2.564 cm at 0.060, 0.662, 1.173, and 1.333 MeV, respectively. As the energy increases, more radiation can pass through the material; therefore, a larger thickness is required to absorb half of the total photons, leading to a greater HVL. The tenth value results reaffirmed that increasing the WO3 content in the STO ceramics improves their shielding efficiency. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) of the four prepared STO ceramics was reported. From the RPE, we found that more photons can be attenuated at lower energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radiation shielding abilities of waste marbles with different concentrations of WO3 (tungsten oxide) nanoparticles were investigated. Four marbles were prepared with 0, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2 WO3 nanoparticles. The study aims to investigate the effect of the WO3 concentration, the density, and the particle size of the waste marble samples. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) of the S1 sample, the sample with no WO3, was determined theoretically and experimentally, and the results demonstrated that they were close enough together to adequately determine the LAC of the other samples. Additionally, the samples with nano-WO3, rather than micro-WO3, were found to have a greater LAC, showing that decreasing the particle size of the sample improves their shielding ability. Samples with greater WO3 content also had higher LAC values. The LAC of the marbles was also evaluated at a wide energy range (0.015–15 MeV) to examine the shielding properties of the samples for a wide range of applications, and an inverse trend between LAC and energy was observed. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) of the marbles demonstrated that the marbles absorb almost all incoming photons at low energies. As energy increases, the efficiency of the samples naturally drops, as the photons are able to penetrate through them with greater ease. High energy dependence was found when calculating the half-value layers (HVL) of the samples. When comparing the LAC and mean free paths (MFP) of the marbles, an inverse relationship was observed. Furthermore, the samples with nano-WO3 had a smaller MFP than those with micro-WO3, meaning that decreasing the particle size of the samples improves their radiation shielding ability. The Zeff of the micro-WO3 samples was also determined and the values followed three distinctive trends depending on the energy range of the incoming photons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

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.