Theoretical Investigation of Fast Neutron and Gamma Radiation Properties of Polycarbonate-Bismuth Oxide Composites Using Geant4

Abstract

The gamma mass (µm) and linear (µ) attenuation coefficients of polycarbonate-bismuth oxide composites (PC-Bi2O3) with different bismuth oxide weight factors were investigated theoretically using EpiXS and a Monte Carlo simulation-based toolkit and Geant4 within an energy range between 0.1 and 2 MeV. The wide energy ranges of gamma rays and neutrons were chosen to cover as many applications as possible. The attenuation coefficients were then used to compute the half-value layers. The effective atomic numbers and effective electron densities of the studied samples obtained by EpiXS were compared as well. In order to further evaluate the shielding effectiveness of the studied samples, the thicknesses of all the investigated samples equivalent to 0.5 mm lead at a gamma energy of 511 keV were compared using a Geant4 code simulating a female numerical phantom with a gamma source placed facing the chest and a cylinder-shaped shield wrapped around the trunk area. The fast neutron removal cross sections of the investigated samples were studied to evaluate the effect of the weight factor of nanocomposites on the neutron shielding capabilities of the polymer as well.

A theoretical focus on nanoparticle attenuation capabilities for potential utilizations in radiation protect: TiO2-SiO2-Fe3O4-B4C-Al2O3

“…In this context, many parameters (Mass Attenuation Coefficient (MAC), Linear Attenuation Coefficient (LAC), Half Value Layer (HVL), Mean Free Path (MFP), Atomic Cross-Sections, Total Electronic Cross-Sections, Effective Atomic Number (Z eff ), Effective Electron Density (N eff ), Effective Conductivity (C eff ), Fast Neutron Removal Cross-Section (FNRCS), Exposure Build-up Factor (EBF), and Energy Absorption Build-up Factor (EABF)) are used to test the radiation absorption performance of the NCs formed, and all these parameters used in the study are presented in table 1 [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64].…”

“…Phy-X/PSD is a program that calculates the photon cross-sections and energy deposition in materials [56][57][58], while EpiXS is a Monte Carlo simulation program that can accurately predict radiation transport and energy deposition in complex geometries [59][60][61][62][63]. XMuDAT is a software package for calculating attenuation coefficients and cross-sections for various materials [19,46,[64][65][66].…”

Geant4 Simulation of the Effect of Different Composites on Polyimide Photon and Neutron Shielding Properties

“…Much of this research demonstrated that polymers' photon attenuation capabilities are promising, and their capacity to attenuate photons be boosted by combining them with various composites with high atomic numbers. Numerous investigated polymers also have high thermal neutron cross-sections and high neutron particle sensitivity, making them excellent neutron-shielding materials [1][2][3][4][5].…”

“…Aluminum, iron oxide, aluminum, zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide comp chosen as the most significant composites that have outstanding impacts on shielding properties. Silver and gold composites also have a good impact on properties, but it is well known that silver and gold composites are expensive; experimental studies of their effects are limited, and a better approach is to use to examine the properties of a substance doped with silver or gold composite In this work, photon and neutron attenuation properties of Polyimide different weights fractions of those mentioned composites (5,10,15,20,25 wt.% energy range (from 10 to 2000) keV have been theoretically investigated u Carlo simulation.…”

Study on Radiation Shielding Characteristics of Refractory High Entropy Alloys by EpiXS Code

“…EpiXS was produced for photon attenuation, dosimetry, and shielding, which covers a broad energy range 1 keV-1 GeV. EpiXS has been a code widely preferred by researchers lately [19,[23][24][25][26]. The XCOM software [27] was developed in order to estimate MAC values or photon interaction cross-sections of a single element, compound, or composite mixture in a wide energy region of 1 keV-100 GeV.…”