Alshahri Saad, Alsuhybani Mohammed, Alosime Eid, Almurayshid Mansour, Alrwais Alhanouf, Alotaibi Salha
Nuclear Science Research Institute, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia.
Polymers (Basel). 2021 Sep 13;13(18):3081. doi: 10.3390/polym13183081.
Recently developed polymer-based composites could prove useful in many applications such as in radiation shielding. In this work, the potential of a bismuth oxide (BiO) nanofiller based on an LDPE polymer was developed as lead-free X-ray radiation shielding offering the benefits of lightness, low-cost and non-toxic compared to pure lead. Three different LDPE-based composites were prepared with varying weight percentages of BiO: 5%, 10% and 15%. The characterizations were extended to include structural properties, physical features, mechanical and thermal properties, and radiation shielding efficiency for the prepared nanocomposites. The results revealed that the incorporation of the BiO nanofiller into an LDPE improved the density of the composites. There was also a slight increase in the tensile strength and tensile modulus. In addition, there was a clear improvement in the efficiency of the shield when fillers were added to the LDPE polymer. The LDPE + BiO (15%) composite needed the lowest thickness to attenuate 50% of the incident X-rays. The LDPE + BiO (15%) polymer can also block around 80% of X-rays at 47.9 keV. In real practice, a thicker shield of the proposed composite materials, or a higher percentage of the filler could be employed to safely ensure the radiation is blocked.
最近开发的聚合物基复合材料在许多应用中可能会证明是有用的，例如在辐射屏蔽方面。在这项工作中，基于低密度聚乙烯（LDPE）聚合物的氧化铋（BiO）纳米填料被开发为无铅X射线辐射屏蔽材料，与纯铅相比，具有重量轻、成本低和无毒的优点。制备了三种不同的基于LDPE的复合材料，其中BiO的重量百分比各不相同：5%、10%和15%。对制备的纳米复合材料的表征扩展到包括结构性能、物理特性、机械和热性能以及辐射屏蔽效率。结果表明，将BiO纳米填料掺入LDPE中提高了复合材料的密度。拉伸强度和拉伸模量也略有增加。此外，当向LDPE聚合物中添加填料时，屏蔽效率有明显提高。LDPE + BiO（15%）复合材料需要最低的厚度来衰减50%的入射X射线。LDPE + BiO（15%）聚合物在47.9 keV时也可以阻挡约80%的X射线。在实际应用中，可以使用更厚的拟议复合材料屏蔽层或更高百分比的填料来安全地确保辐射被阻挡。
