Intensely bonded high filling bismuth oxide with chloroprene rubber to achieve lead-free flexible materials for γ-rays shielding.

Achieving lead-free flexible materials with excellent γ-ray shielding as well as good mechanical properties are of significance to radiation protection safety and wear comfort of wearable articles. In this paper, polydopamine (PDA) is coated on Bi₂O₃ particles to form a typical core–shell structure Bi₂O₃@PDA, which is used to intensely bond bismuth oxide (Bi₂O₃) with chloroprene rubber (CR). It promotes the interface interaction between Bi₂O₃ and CR matrix, leading to the uniform dispersion of the filler and rich interfacial compatibility in CR/Bi₂O₃@PDA composite with as high as 50 wt% filling. Furthermore, 50 wt% CR/Bi₂O₃@PDA composite displays 53.6% shielding rate for 105 keV γ-rays. Meanwhile, its tensile strength and elongation at break are 9.6 MPa and 1424.8%, respectively, which are without sacrificing too much in comparison with the neat rubber. We propose a versatile route to prepare superior integrated properties of flexible materials, which can be used as wearable articles for radiation shielding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]