Understanding the Effect of Introducing Micro- and Nanoparticle Bismuth Oxide (Bi2O3) on the Gamma Ray Shielding Performance of Novel Concrete

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the radiation shielding properties of novel concrete samples with bulk Bi2O3 and Bi2O3 nanoparticles (Bi2O3 NP) incorporated into its composition. The mass attenuation coefficient of the concrete samples without Bi2O3 and with 5 and 7 wt% bulk Bi2O3 were experimentally determined and were compared against values obtained using the XCOM and Geant4 simulations. Both methods greatly agree with the experimental values. The linear attenuation coefficients (LAC) of blank concrete (C-0), concrete with 5% bulk Bi2O3 (C-B5), and concrete with 5% nanoparticle Bi2O3 (C-N5) were determined and compared at a wide energy range. We found that the LAC follows the trend of C-0 < C-B5 < C-N5 at all the tested energies. Since both C-B5 and C-N5 have a greater LAC than C-0, these results indicate that the addition of Bi2O3 improves the shielding ability of the concretes. In addition, we investigated the influence of nanoparticle Bi2O3 on the LAC of the concretes. The half-value layer (HVL) for the concretes with bulk Bi2O3 and Bi2O3 nanoparticles is also investigated. At all energies, the C-0 has the greatest HVL, while C-N15 has the least. Thus, C-N15 concrete is the most space efficient, while C-0 is the least space efficient. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) of the prepared concretes was found to decrease with increasing energy for all five samples. For C-0, the RPE decreased from 63.3% at 0.060 MeV to 13.48% at 1.408 MeV, while for C-N15, the RPE decreased from 87.9 to 15.09% for the same respective energies. Additionally, C-N5 had a greater RPE than C-B5, this result demonstrates that Bi2O3 NP are more efficient at shielding radiation than bulk Bi2O3.

Improving Gamma Ray Shielding Behaviors of Polypropylene Using PbO Nanoparticles: An Experimental Study

“…The half and tenth value layers (HVL and TVL) are the material thicknesses enough to reduce the gamma ray intensity by 50% and 10% of its initial intensity, respectively, while the mean free path (MFP) is defined as the average distance between two successive collisions. These parameters are calculated by the following equation [ 29 , 30 ]: …”

Experimental Study of Polypropylene with Additives of Bi2O3 Nanoparticles as Radiation-Shielding Materials

“…The half and tenth value layers ( HVL and TVL ) are the material thicknesses enough to reduce the gamma ray intensity by 50% and 10% of its initial intensity, respectively, whereas the mean free path ( MFP ) is defined as the average distance between two successive collisions. These parameters were calculated by the following equation [ 31 , 32 ]: …”

Enhancement of Ceramics Based Red-Clay by Bulk and Nano Metal Oxides for Photon Shielding Features

“…The linear attenuation coefficient or LAC is defined as the probability of photons interacting with matter per unit path length, and was calculated to determine other important shielding parameters (such as HVL and TVL) where the LAC equals MAC*ρ. The HVL and TVL represent the thicknesses needed to attenuate 50% and 90% of the initial photon intensity, respectively, and can be evaluated by the following equations [37,38]: The effective atomic number (Zeff) is another useful radiation interaction factor that is used to describe the attenuating properties of mixtures or compounds in terms of the elements present, and depends on the incoming photon energy. Zeff values for the studied polymers can be obtained using Equation ( 3) [39]:…”