Effect of Polymer Shell Structure of a Gamma-ray Shielding Film Prepared Using Composite Material on Shielding Performance

Abstract

Medical protective clothing should be flexible to ensure free movement of healthcare personnel. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a polymer’s physical properties on the particle composition of a shielding material, constituent component miscibility, and shielding performance. To ensure flexibility by reducing the thickness of the shielding garment, polymer-based composite materials are mainly used as shielding materials. The shielding performance varies depending on whether the polymer used is in an emulsion or powder state. In this study, we found that a shielding film manufactured through an injection process after mixing a polymer in a powder form with tungsten powder exhibited 0.95%–2.5% higher shielding performance than that manufactured using the calendering process with an emulsion polymer. The shell structure formed when using the powder polymer maintains the spacing between the particles owing to the double coating of the tungsten particles and improves their dispersion. Additionally, the primary issue when combining an emulsion polymer and shielding material, that is the aggregation between the shielding material particles and between the polymer particles, could be alleviated, resulting in improved shielding performance. We concluded that the polymer-powder mixing method contributes to the reproducibility of the process technology when manufacturing shielding films.