Development of New Lead-Free Composite Materials as Potential Radiation Shields
Utilizing a polymer-based radiation shield offers lightweight, low cost, non-toxic compared to lead and solution for eliminating generated secondary neutrons. Incorporating silicon (i.e., one of the most abundant elements) in new applications, such as shielding, would have an impact on the economy a...
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doaj-eebad82301e94dc4b97689a0984610ed2021-09-09T13:51:17ZengMDPI AGMaterials1996-19442021-08-01144957495710.3390/ma14174957Development of New Lead-Free Composite Materials as Potential Radiation ShieldsMansour Almurayshid0Yousif Alssalim1Farouk Aksouh2Rashed Almsalam3Meshari ALQahtani4M. I. Sayyed5Fahad Almasoud6Nuclear Science Research Institute (NSRI), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh 11442, Saudi ArabiaNuclear Science Research Institute (NSRI), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh 11442, Saudi ArabiaPhysics & Astronomy Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi ArabiaNuclear Science Research Institute (NSRI), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh 11442, Saudi ArabiaNuclear Science Research Institute (NSRI), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh 11442, Saudi ArabiaDepartment of Physics, Faculty of Science, Isra University, Amman 11622, JordanNuclear Science Research Institute (NSRI), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Riyadh 11442, Saudi ArabiaUtilizing a polymer-based radiation shield offers lightweight, low cost, non-toxic compared to lead and solution for eliminating generated secondary neutrons. Incorporating silicon (i.e., one of the most abundant elements) in new applications, such as shielding, would have an impact on the economy and industry. In this study, seven potential shielding materials, composed of silicon, silicon carbide, and boron carbide embedded ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers, are proposed. The shielding performance of these composite materials, including the attenuation coefficients (<i>µ</i>), the mass attenuation coefficients (<i>µ<sub>m</sub></i>), the half value layer (HVL), the mean free path (MFP), and the radiation protection efficiency (RPE) were examined using photon beams. Measured <i>µ<sub>m</sub></i> were verified against the calculated values. The averaged agreement was within ±7.4% between the experimental measurements and the theoretical calculation results. The HVL and MFP measured values for the polymer composites were lower than that for the pure EVA polymer, indicating the fillers in the polymers enhanced the shielding performance. The EVA + SiC (30%) and EVA + Si (15%) + B<sub>4</sub>C (15%) composites required the lowest thickness to stop 50% of the incident photons. The evaluation of experimental results of the RPE revealed that the polymer composites containing SiC (30%), Si (15%) + B<sub>4</sub>C (15%), or SiC (15%) + B<sub>4</sub>C (15%) succeeded in blocking 90–91% of X-rays at nearly 80 keV. However, a thicker shield of the proposed composite materials or combined layers with other high-Z materials could be used for higher energies.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/14/17/4957shielding materialsradiation protectionsiliconpolymer |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Mansour Almurayshid Yousif Alssalim Farouk Aksouh Rashed Almsalam Meshari ALQahtani M. I. Sayyed Fahad Almasoud |
spellingShingle |
Mansour Almurayshid Yousif Alssalim Farouk Aksouh Rashed Almsalam Meshari ALQahtani M. I. Sayyed Fahad Almasoud Development of New Lead-Free Composite Materials as Potential Radiation Shields Materials shielding materials radiation protection silicon polymer |
author_facet |
Mansour Almurayshid Yousif Alssalim Farouk Aksouh Rashed Almsalam Meshari ALQahtani M. I. Sayyed Fahad Almasoud |
author_sort |
Mansour Almurayshid |
title |
Development of New Lead-Free Composite Materials as Potential Radiation Shields |
title_short |
Development of New Lead-Free Composite Materials as Potential Radiation Shields |
title_full |
Development of New Lead-Free Composite Materials as Potential Radiation Shields |
title_fullStr |
Development of New Lead-Free Composite Materials as Potential Radiation Shields |
title_full_unstemmed |
Development of New Lead-Free Composite Materials as Potential Radiation Shields |
title_sort |
development of new lead-free composite materials as potential radiation shields |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Materials |
issn |
1996-1944 |
publishDate |
2021-08-01 |
description |
Utilizing a polymer-based radiation shield offers lightweight, low cost, non-toxic compared to lead and solution for eliminating generated secondary neutrons. Incorporating silicon (i.e., one of the most abundant elements) in new applications, such as shielding, would have an impact on the economy and industry. In this study, seven potential shielding materials, composed of silicon, silicon carbide, and boron carbide embedded ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers, are proposed. The shielding performance of these composite materials, including the attenuation coefficients (<i>µ</i>), the mass attenuation coefficients (<i>µ<sub>m</sub></i>), the half value layer (HVL), the mean free path (MFP), and the radiation protection efficiency (RPE) were examined using photon beams. Measured <i>µ<sub>m</sub></i> were verified against the calculated values. The averaged agreement was within ±7.4% between the experimental measurements and the theoretical calculation results. The HVL and MFP measured values for the polymer composites were lower than that for the pure EVA polymer, indicating the fillers in the polymers enhanced the shielding performance. The EVA + SiC (30%) and EVA + Si (15%) + B<sub>4</sub>C (15%) composites required the lowest thickness to stop 50% of the incident photons. The evaluation of experimental results of the RPE revealed that the polymer composites containing SiC (30%), Si (15%) + B<sub>4</sub>C (15%), or SiC (15%) + B<sub>4</sub>C (15%) succeeded in blocking 90–91% of X-rays at nearly 80 keV. However, a thicker shield of the proposed composite materials or combined layers with other high-Z materials could be used for higher energies. |
topic |
shielding materials radiation protection silicon polymer |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/14/17/4957 |
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