Assessment and estimation of Zn production yield via neutron induced reaction on ZnO and ZnONPs.

Zinc-65 has been of great interest in medical, biomedical, agricultural, and industrial applications due to its suitable half-life and decay properties. The Zn was produced via neutron irradiation on natural zinc oxide and natural zinc oxide nanoparticles targets in Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) at a thermal neutron flux of 4.5 × 10 n cm s for 30 min. The excitation function of Zn(n,γ)Zn reaction was calculated via the TALYS-1.8 code. The MCNPX code was used to calculate the thermal neutron distribution. The Zn theoretical production yield was estimated using calculated cross sections and the calculated thermal neutron distribution. The obtained experimental data and simulated value of production yield for Zn were in reasonable agreement.