Radiation shielding performance of metal oxides/EPDM rubber composites using Geant4 simulation and computational study

Alabsy, Mahmoud T.; Elzaher, Mohamed Abd

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-34615-9

Cited by 16 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The chemical stability, flexibility, lightweight, and low cost of polymer composites with inorganic fillers like micro and nanoparticles have led to extensive research into these materials as potential substitutes for conventional radiation shielding materials 13 . There are many polymers, including PMMA 14 , polyethylene 15 , polypropylene 16 , polyvinyl chloride 17 , epoxy 18 , styrene-butadiene rubber 19 , natural rubber 20 , silicon rubber 21 , ethylene-propylene-dine monomer (EPDM) 22 , polystyrene 23 , and recycled polymers 24 , 25 , were studied as radiation-protective matrixes. Nagaraja et al investigated the performance of radiation shielding for different types of polymers that are commonly used within the energy range 81–1332 keV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attenuation properties of poly methyl methacrylate reinforced with micro/nano ZrO2 as gamma-ray shields

Alabsy,

Abbas,

El-khatib

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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This research aimed to examine the radiation shielding properties of unique polymer composites for medical and non-medical applications. For this purpose, polymer composites, based on poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) as a matrix, were prepared and reinforced with micro- and nanoparticles of ZrO2 fillers at a loading of 15%, 30%, and 45% by weight. Using the high purity germanium (HPGe) detector, the suggested polymer composites’ shielding characteristics were assessed for various radioactive sources. The experimental values of the mass attenuation coefficients (MAC) of the produced composites agreed closely with those obtained theoretically from the XCOM database. Different shielding parameters were estimated at a broad range of photon energies, including the linear attenuation coefficient (μ), tenth value layer (TVL), half value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), effective electron density (Neff), effective atomic number (Zeff), and equivalent atomic number (Zeq), as well as exposure buildup factor (EBF) and energy absorption buildup factor (EABF) to provide more shielding information about the penetration of γ-rays into the chosen composites. The results showed that increasing the content of micro and nano ZrO2 particles in the PMMA matrix increases μ values and decreases HVL, TVL, and MFP values. P-45nZ sample with 45 wt% of ZrO2 nanoparticles had the highest μ values, which varied between 2.6546 and 0.0991 cm−1 as γ-ray photon energy increased from 0.0595 to 1.408 MeV, respectively. Furthermore, the highest relative increase rate in μ values between nano and micro composites was 17.84%, achieved for the P-45nZ sample at 59.53 keV. These findings demonstrated that ZrO2 nanoparticles shield radiation more effectively than micro ZrO2 even at the same photon energy and filler wt%. Thus, the proposed nano ZrO2/PMMA composites can be used as effective shielding materials to lessen the transmitted radiation dose in radiation facilities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attenuation properties of poly methyl methacrylate reinforced with micro/nano ZrO2 as gamma-ray shields

Alabsy,

Abbas,

El-khatib

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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“…Furthermore, recycled rubber was also investigated as radiation protection material with appropriate additives 13 . As a theoretical study, the gamma radiation shielding features of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber composites filled with 200 phr of different metal oxides (Al 2 O 3 , CuO, CdO, Gd 2 O 3 , or Bi 2 O 3 ) were reported using Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation toolkit 14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel slag/natural rubber composite as flexible material for protecting workers against radiation hazards

El-Khatib,

Doma,

Abbas

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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This work is an attempt to employ the electric arc furnace (EAF) slag as a by-product material to develop an alternative and environmentally friendly material for gamma-radiation protection applications such as in medical and industrial areas. For this purpose, different concentrations of micro-sized EAF slag (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 500, and 800 phr) were incorporated as fillers in the natural rubber (NR) matrix to produce the shielding composites. In addition, nano-sized EAF slag particles were prepared by using a high-energy ball milling technique to investigate the effect of particle size on the gamma-radiation shielding properties. The synthesized micro and nano EAF/NR composites were tested as protective materials against gamma-radiation by employing NaI(Tl) scintillation detector and standard radioactive point sources (152Eu, 137Cs, 133Ba, and 60Co). Different shielding parameters such as linear and mass attenuation coefficient, half value layer (HVL), tenth value layer, mean free path, effective atomic number (Zeff), and effective electron density (Neff) were determined to assess the radiation shielding capability of the EAF/NR composites. Furthermore, equivalent atomic number (Zeq) and the exposure buildup factor values for photon energy in the range from 0.015 to 15 MeV were also computed by Geometric Progression method. The experimental results of micro EAF/NR composites showed that at 121.78 keV, EAF0 composite (without EAF slag content) had the lowest μ value of 0.1695 cm−1, while the EAF800 composite (which was loaded with 800 phr of micro EAF slag) had the highest μ value of 0.2939 cm−1 at the same energy, which in turn decreases the HVL from 4.09 to 2.36 cm, respectively. Therefore, increasing the filler weight fractions of EAF slag in the NR matrix, increases the shielding properties of the composites. Moreover, the NR composite reinforced with 800 phr of nano EAF slag has better gamma-radiation shielding efficiency compared to that filled with 800 phr of micro EAF slag. The success of this work was to prepare a flexible, lightweight, low-cost, and lead-free material with better shielding capability.

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“…Glasses with heavy metal oxide modifiers can shield against both photons and neutrons since they are of high content of both heavy and light elements [40]. However, the neutron-induced damage to these heavy metal oxide modifiers due to the transfer of incident neutrons energy via elastic collision with the primary knock-on atoms, should be considered [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical Investigation of the Influence of Different Heavy Metal Oxides Modifiers on ZnO-Bi2O3-B2O3-SiO2’s Photon- and Neutron-Shielding Capabilities Using the Monte Carlo Method

Akhdar

2023

Applied Sciences

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Radiation has become an essential part in medicine and researchers are constituently investigating radiation shielding materials that are suitable for different medical applications. Glass, due to its properties, has been considered an excellent radiation shield for such applications. One of the most common glasses used as a radiation shield is the ZnO-Bi2O3-B2O3-SiO2 anti-radiation glass. Heavy metal oxides have many desirable properties such as high density, transparency to visible light, stability in air and water, high interaction cross section, high infrared transparency, and good absorption of radiation, which make them desirable to be used as modifiers with anti-radiation glass. Research has been focusing on environmentally friendly shielding material which leads to non-lead modifiers such as Na2O, Al2O3, MgO, TiO2, SrO, Sb2O3, and BaO, which have become more desired than PbO. So far, ZnO-Bi2O3-B2O3-SiO2’s photon shielding properties have been studied experimentally with the addition of BaO at certain energies only. In this work, different heavy metal oxides are added as modifiers to ZnO-Bi2O3-B2O3-SiO2 glass in order to investigate theoretically their effects on the shielding properties of the glass at a wide range of photon and neutron energies. Simulation is cost- and time-effective when it comes to investigating different compositions of glass and different modifiers with different weight percentages at any energy range for any type of radiation. Simulation could be considered the first step in order to identify the best mixture with the best weight fractions prior to any experimental investigations of other desired properties based on the needed application. In this work, the photon- and neutron-shielding capabilities of the ZnO-Bi2O3-B2O3-SiO2 anti-radiation glass is investigated with different weight fractions of heavy metal oxides at wide photon and neutron energy ranges. Geant4, which is a Monte Carlo-based powerful toolkit, is used to find the mass attenuation coefficients (µm) of photons, as well as the effective removal cross sections (ΣR) of neutrons, of all the investigated samples in the studied energy range.

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Radiation shielding performance of metal oxides/EPDM rubber composites using Geant4 simulation and computational study

Cited by 16 publications

References 34 publications

Attenuation properties of poly methyl methacrylate reinforced with micro/nano ZrO2 as gamma-ray shields

Attenuation properties of poly methyl methacrylate reinforced with micro/nano ZrO2 as gamma-ray shields

Novel slag/natural rubber composite as flexible material for protecting workers against radiation hazards

Theoretical Investigation of the Influence of Different Heavy Metal Oxides Modifiers on ZnO-Bi2O3-B2O3-SiO2’s Photon- and Neutron-Shielding Capabilities Using the Monte Carlo Method

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