Gamma Attenuation Coefficients of Nano Cadmium Oxide/High density Polyethylene Composites

Abstract

In the present work, high density polyethylene (HDPE) matrix mixed with micro-sized and nano-sized Cadmium oxide (CdO) particles of different concentrations were prepared by compression molding technique. The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of particle size and weight percentage of CdO particles on the gamma radiation shielding ability of CdO/HDPE composites. The mass attenuation coefficients of pure HDPE, micro-CdO/HDPE and nano-CdO/HDPE composites were evaluated at photon energies ranging from 59.53 keV to 1408.01 keV using standard radioactive point sources [241Am, 133Ba, 137Cs, 60Co and 152Eu]. Adding micro and nano CdO particles to the HDPE matrix clearly increases the mass attenuation coefficients of the composites and the improvement is more significant at low γ-ray energies. The effect of particle size of CdO filler has an important role on the shielding ability of the composite. The experimental results reveal that, the composites filled with nano-CdO have better γ-radiation shielding ability compared to that filled with micro-CdO at the same weight fraction. A relative increase rate of about 16% is obtained with nano-CdO content of 40 wt% at 59.53 keV, which attributed to the higher probability of interaction between γ-rays and nanoparticles. From this study, it can be concluded that nano-CdO has a good performance shielding characteristic than micro-CdO in HDPE based radiation shielding material.

Polymeric composite materials for radiation shielding: a review

“…Nanogadolinium oxide (Gd 2 O 3 ) composites were more efficient in shielding X- and gamma ray than microgadolinium oxide (Gd 2 O 3 ) composites, and an enhanced effect of ~ 28% was obtained with gadolinium oxide (Gd 2 O 3 ) content of around 5 weight percent at 59.5 keV (Li et al 2017 ). The addition of micro- and nanocadmium oxide (CdO) particles to the high-density polyethylene matrix increased the mass attenuation coefficients of the composites mainly at low gamma-ray energies (El-Khatib et al 2019 ). The polymer–matrix composites based on high-density polyethylene with either lead oxide (PbO) nanoparticles or lead oxide bulk using 10 and 50% weight fractions synthesized by solid-state intermixing and thermal pressing technique showed interesting gamma-rays shielding properties especially for high filler loadings (Mahmoud et al 2018a , b ).…”

“…Latterly, investigators working in the field of radiation protection have focused and reported numerous polymer matrices that can be used as gamma-ray shields like bismuth oxide (Bi 2 O 3 ) filled poly (methyl methacrylate) composites; high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composite loaded with tungsten (W), molybdenum sulfide (MoS 2 ), and boron carbide (B 4 C); micro- and nanosized tungsten oxide (WO 3 ) dispersed emulsion polyvinyl chloride (EPVC) polymer composites; lead oxide filled isophthalic resin polymer composites; silicone rubber composites containing bismuth content; polymer bricks (PolyBiz); polyester composites reinforced with zinc; composites of high-density polyethylene with zinc oxide; lead oxide; and cadmium oxide (Plionis et al 2009 ; El-Fiki et al 2015 ; Aghaz et al 2016 ; Mahmoud et al 2018a , b ; Afshar et al 2019 ; Alsayed et al 2019 , 2020 ; El-Khatib et al 2019 ; Cao et al 2020 ; Kaçal et al 2020 ).…”

Self-healable soft shield for γ-ray radiation based on polyacrylamide hydrogel composites

“… Shielding material Polymer Attenuation coefficient (cm −1 ) HVL (cm) Ref. Water – 0.06323 10.96 29 Ordinary concrete – 0.13342 5.19 29 Bi 2 O 3 Nature rubber 0.105 7 30 Bi 2 O 3 Polyvinyl alcohol 0.127 5.475 20 CdO High density polyethylene 0.104 6.67 31 Pb 3 O 4 Phenyl epoxy 0.103 6.74 32 PbO 2 Polyacrylamide 0.1343 5.16 This work …”

A comparative study between nano-cadmium oxide and lead oxide reinforced in high density polyethylene as gamma rays shielding composites

“…Poly mer com pos ites re in forced by in or ganic metal ox ides were widely stud ied as pro tec tive ra di ation shield ing ma te ri als. In the lit er a ture, many polymers such as poly eth yl ene [5], re cy cled poly eth yl ene [6], ep oxy [7], poly es ter [8], sty rene bu ta diene rub ber [9], eth yl ene-pro pyl ene-dine mono mer (EPDM) [10], polyimide [11], nat u ral rub ber [12] and poly sty rene [13] were in ves ti gated as ra di a tion shield ing ma trixes. Var i ous metal ox ides like PbO [8], PbWO 4 [10], Sm 2 O 3 [11], WO 3 [14], Bi 2 O 3 [15] and Gd 2 O 3 [3], with dif fer ent par ti cle sizes, were used as fill ers in the poly meric ma trix to shield X-rays [16] and g-rays.…”

“…El-Khatib et al [5] stud ied the ef fect of mi croand nano-cad mium ox ide (CdO) par ti cles, of dif fer ent load ings dis persed in high den sity poly eth yl ene (HDPE) on the g-rays trans mis sion, rang ing from 59.53 keV to 1480.01 keV and found that the CdO parti cles were more ef fec tive to at ten u ate g-rays spe cially at lower pho ton en er gies. Hence, the aim of this in ves -ti ga tion is to pres ent a com par a tive study be tween CdO and PbO ac cord ing to their sizes as fill ers, in HDPE poly meric ma trix for gamma-ra di a tion shielding ap pli ca tions.…”