Investigation of Gamma-Ray Shielding Properties of Bismuth Oxide Nanoparticles with a Bentonite–Gypsum Matrix

Abstract

Due to the present industrial world, the risk of radioactivity is notably increasing. Thus, an appropriate shielding material needs to be designed to protect humans and the environment against radiation. In view of this, the present study aims to design new composites of the main matrix of bentonite–gypsum with a low-cost, abundant, and natural matrix. This main matrix was intercalated in various amounts with micro- and nanosized particles of bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) as the filler. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) recognized the chemical composition of the prepared specimen. The morphology of the bentonite–gypsum specimen was tested using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM images showed the uniformity and porosity of a cross-section of samples. The NaI (Tl) scintillation detector was used with four radioactive sources (241Am, 137Cs, 133Ba, and 60Co) of various photon energies. Genie 2000 software was used to determine the area under the peak of the energy spectrum observed in the presence and absence of each specimen. Then, the linear and mass attenuation coefficients were obtained. After comparing the experimental results of the mass attenuation coefficient with the theoretical values from XCOM software, it was found that the experimental results were valid. The radiation shielding parameters were computed, including the mass attenuation coefficients (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), tenth-value layer (TVL), and mean free path (MFP), which are dependent on the linear attenuation coefficient. In addition, the effective atomic number and buildup factors were calculated. The results of all of these parameters provided the same conclusion, which confirms the improvement of the properties of γ-ray shielding materials using a mixture of bentonite and gypsum as the main matrix, which is much better than using bentonite alone. Moreover, bentonite mixed with gypsum is a more economical means of production. Therefore, the investigated bentonite–gypsum materials have potential uses in applications such as gamma-ray shielding materials.

Applicability of an Ionising Radiation Measuring System for Real-Time Effective-Dose-Optimised Route Finding Solution during Nuclear Accidents

“…In order to facilitate the precise determination and comparative assessment of received doses along various exposure pathways, it is essential to evaluate the shielding efficacy of the vehicle, as it permits the calculation of in-vehicle doses based on measurements acquired from an unshielded detector carried by any vehicle type. Similar procedural and methodological scientific information can be found in several benchmark publications related to the subject of the present research [55][56][57].…”

Impact of Bulk and Nano Bismuth Oxide on the Attenuation Parameters of Bentonite Barite Composites

“…Bismuth oxide, both in bulk and in nanoscale form, was employed as a filler with varying weight percentages. The comparison that was carried out between the determined experimental and theoretical (XCOM) mass attenua- In a comparison between this study, which used the bentonite-barite matrix and Bi 2 O 3 bulk and Np's (filler), and the study of Abbas et al [34], which used bulk and nanoscale Bi 2 O 3 as filler in the bentonite matrix, at the same Bi 2 O 3 microparticle concentrations and photon energies (59.53, 80.99, 356.01 keV) and the bentonite-barite composites of the current work for (6 wt% and 20 wt%), the Bi 2 O 3 microparticles have a higher linear attenuation coefficient than that of the bentonite-gypsum composite of Abbas et al [34], as seen in Table 4. This means that the presence of barite in the bentonite composites increases the linear attenuation coefficient, which confirms the higher shielding performance of the bentonite in the nano Bi 2 O 3 composites.…”

“…Finally, the calculated G-P parameters were used to compute the EABF from the following G-P fitting formula [34]:…”

Radiation attenuation properties of chemically prepared MgO nanoparticles/HDPE composites

“…The count rate (N) was measured for all energies as a function of disc thickness (x) either for micro or nano MgO /HDPE samples. From the slope, LAC was calculated experimentally by the next equation 31 , 32 . …”