Impact of Growth Temperature of Lead-Oxide Nanostructures on the Attenuation of Gamma Radiation.

Chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique is utilized to grow lead-oxide (PbO) nanostructures (NSs) over PbO seed fabricated by physical vapor deposition (PVD) method on glass substrates. The effect of growth temperatures 50 and 70 °C on the surface topography, optical properties, and crystal structure of lead-oxide NSs has been studied. The investigated results suggested that the growth temperature has a huge and very considerable influence on the PbO NS, and the fabricated PbO NS has been indexed as the PbO polycrystalline tetragonal phase. The crystal size for PbO thin films grown at 50 °C was 85.688 nm and increased to 96.61 nm once the growth temperature reached 70 °C. The fabricated PbO nanofilms show a high rate of transmittance, which are ∼70 and 75% in the visible spectrum for the films deposited at 50 and 70 °C, respectively. The obtained was in the range of 2.099-2.288 eV. Also, the linear attenuation coefficient values of gamma-rays for shielding the Cs-137 radioactive source increased at 50 °C. The transmission factor, mean free path, and half-value layer are reduced at a higher attenuation coefficient of PbO grown at 50 °C. This study evaluates the relationship between synthesized lead-oxide NSs and the radiation energy attenuation of gamma-rays. This study provided a suitable, novel, and flexible protective shield of clothes or an apron made of lead or lead oxide to protect against ionizing radiation that meets safety rules and protects medical workers from ionizing radiation.