Nowadays, X-rays are playing increasingly important roles in daily life and industrial manufacture, which calls for effective and mobile shielding materials. However, it seems to be a paradox to prepare shielding materials simultaneously achieving excellent X-ray attenuation properties and superior mechanical strength. Here, an advanced leather-based X-ray shielding material containing bismuth and iodine (BiINP-LM) is prepared, and the stable and well-dispersed loading of high-Z element components is enabled by favorable interactions between bismuth iodide and leather, i.e., coordination, hydrogen bonds, and electrostatic attractions. A piece of BiINP-LM with 1.00 mm thickness displays an excellent X-ray attenuation efficiency of more than 90% in the photon energy range below 50 keV and 65% at 83 keV, which averagely exceeds ∼3% than that of the 0.25 mm lead plate and ∼5% than that of the 0.65 mm commercial lead apron. Additionally, the coordination between bismuth and leather provides an enhanced tensile and tear strength of ∼10-fold and 3-fold compared with the lead apron. It is worth mentioning that BiINP-LM also displays extra high water-vapor permeability, which is ∼50-fold more than the lead apron. Overall, this work opens up a new prospect for preparing advanced X-ray shielding materials with both excellent X-ray attenuation and outstanding physiomechanical performances.
A high-shielding, low secondary radiation, lightweight, flexible, and wearable X-ray protection material was prepared by coimpregnating La 2 O 3 and Bi 2 O 3 nanoparticles in natural leather (NL) with an additional Bi 2 O 3 coating at the bottom surface of the leather. The prepared Bi 28.2 @Bi 3.48 La 3.48 −NL (28.2 and 3.48 mmol•cm −3 are the loading contents of elements) showed excellent X-ray shielding ability (65−100%) in a wide energy range of 20−120 keV with reduced scattered secondary radiation (30%). The bottom surface coating played a critical role in enhancing the X-ray attenuation and reducing the scattered secondary radiation by reflecting and deflecting incident X-ray photons. Excellent mechanical property with superb bending resistance of the NL matrix was properly maintained, and its tensile strength and tearing load were 15.39 MPa and 25.81 N•mm −1 , respectively. This lightweight and wearable high-performance protection material can facilitate safety and comfortability during intensive activities of practitioners in the health care industry.
Preventing X‐rays from reaching the human body is of great significance for the safe implementation of a wide range of related technologies. However, the current materials are commonly accompanied with low mechanical properties and backscatter radiation hazards. In this study, a structural material with high mass attenuation coefficients in a wide energy range (10–100 keV) is developed. The integration of high‐Z elements in hierarchical collagen nanofibers strongly reduces the backscatter radiation, resulting in only 28% of secondary radiation compared with a standard lead plate. The water vapor permeability of the engineered leather is nearly 340 times higher than commonly used synthetic and natural polymers. Compared with the commercial rubber‐based materials, the tensile strength of the engineered leather increased to 27.22 MPa (tenfold increase) and tear strength to 78.5 N mm−1 (threefold increase), respectively. A fully tailored engineered leather suit provides a 24.7% lower metabolic rate of locomotion and 67% reduced body heat compared with commercial lead aprons, which can facilitate better performance and safety during intensive activities in the health care and nuclear industries. This work lays a foundation for the engineering of next‐generation X‐ray shielding materials with potential large impact on the X‐ray application landscape.
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