Personal protective equipment (PPE) with wear comfort
and radiation
protection safety are of immense significance to human personnel in
radiation environments. Unfortunately, current rubber-based PPE fail
to channel secreted sweat away during work, which usually causes reduced
wear comfort and then affects working efficiency. Here, we propose
a solution to these issues for textile-based PPEs with highly filled
polymer fibers. PbWO4 (PWO) particles are first prepared
and then superficially modified with styrene maleic anhydride (SMA)
during a precipitation reaction. Then, highly filled PWO@SMA/poly(vinyl
alcohol) (PVA) fibers are obtained by solution blending and wet spinning
in succession. Uniform dispersion of PWO particles and good compatibility
of interfaces are observed for the highly filled fibers. All of the
fibers display desired mechanical properties, leading to a stable
weaving process. Importantly, the prepared fabrics have the ability
to shield high-energy photons while allowing for air permeability.
The 60 wt % PWO@SMA/PVA fabrics display a 31.13% γ-ray (105
keV) shielding rate and 66 mm/s air permeability. This work provides
a feasible and effective strategy for fabricating highly filled polymer-based
fibers, which offer a huge promise of improved wear comfort of PPEs
for radiation protection.
personal protective equipment (PPE) is of vital importance to radiation protection safety of nuclear personnel involved. [4][5][6] Currently, the PPE is fabricated with rubber-based composites containing high atomic number (high Z) fillers such as lead (Pb), tungsten (W), and bismuth (Bi). [7][8][9][10][11] Although it has various merits such as flexibility for wearability, its poor permeability for air and water vapor is negative to channel sweat away during work, which causes reduced wear comfort and then affects working efficiency. [12,13] Therefore, it is urgent to develop flexible materials with permeability for enhanced wear comfort and radiation protection safety of PPE.Many studies have attached importance to fabrics bearing heavy metals to meet the requirements. This is due to the fact that overlapped fabrics shield high-energy photons meanwhile offer curving passages for permeability. Coating high-Z fillers on textiles has the ability to shield highenergy photons while it tends to be peeled off and reduce permeability. [14][15][16][17][18][19] Alternatively, polymer fibers containing high-Z fillers for fabrics seems to address wear comfort meanwhile radiation shielding safety. Some high-Z fillers, such as Bi 2 O 3 , WO 3 , Bi 2 WO 6 , and BaSO 4 , have been intensely applied to fabricated various polymer fibers for shielding X-rays. [20][21][22][23][24][25] Note that current polymer fibers are generally filled with no more than 40 wt% fillers. This is due
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