Gouda Mona M, Abbas Mahmoud I, Eid Malak H, Ziedan Mohamed S, Ibrahim Moaaz A, Tawfik Mohamed M, El-Khatib Ahmed M
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21511, Egypt.
Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 25;13(1):18224. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-45516-2.
This study investigates the gamma radiation shielding properties of cement-ball clay matrix composites doped with micro- and nano-sized cadmium oxide (CdO) particles. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) was determined using a sodium iodide (NaI) detector and five radioactive point sources with energies ranging from 59.5 to 1408 keV. The LAC values obtained were compared to the XCOM database and found to be in good agreement. The composites' half-value layer (HVL), tenth value layer (TVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z), equivalent atomic number (Z), and absorption buildup factor (EABF) were determined. The results showed that the addition of CdO particles improved the radiation-shielding behavior of the composites and increasing the weight fraction of CdO particles increased the shielding effectiveness. The results also illustrated that when nano-sized CdO particles were compared to their micro-sized counterparts, there was a significant enhancement in radiation shielding effectiveness. For instance, a composite material composed of 50% cement, 41.7% ball clay, and 3.8% nano CdO at an energy level of 0.0595 MeV exhibited a remarkable 12.2% increase in attenuation, surpassing the performance of the micro-sized sample with an equivalent concentration. Similarly, another composite consisting of 50% cement, 33.3% ball clay, and 16.7% nano CdO demonstrated a significant 15.4% increase in attenuation at the same energy level, when compared to the micro-sized sample. The study demonstrates the potential of CdO-doped cement-ball clay matrix composites for gamma radiation shielding applications.
本研究调查了掺杂微米和纳米尺寸氧化镉（CdO）颗粒的水泥-球粘土基复合材料的伽马辐射屏蔽性能。使用碘化钠（NaI）探测器和五个能量范围为59.5至1408 keV的放射性点源测定线性衰减系数（LAC）。将获得的LAC值与XCOM数据库进行比较，发现两者吻合良好。测定了复合材料的半值层（HVL）、十分之一值层（TVL）、平均自由程（MFP）、有效原子序数（Z）、等效原子序数（Z）和吸收积累因子（EABF）。结果表明，添加CdO颗粒改善了复合材料的辐射屏蔽性能，增加CdO颗粒的重量分数提高了屏蔽效果。结果还表明，与微米尺寸的CdO颗粒相比，纳米尺寸的CdO颗粒在辐射屏蔽效果上有显著增强。例如，一种由50%水泥、41.7%球粘土和3.8%纳米CdO组成的复合材料在0.0595 MeV能量水平下表现出显著高达12.2%的衰减增加，超过了同等浓度微米尺寸样品的性能。同样，另一种由50%水泥、33.3%球粘土和16.7%纳米CdO组成的复合材料在相同能量水平下与微米尺寸样品相比，衰减显著增加了15.4%。该研究证明了掺杂CdO的水泥-球粘土基复合材料在伽马辐射屏蔽应用中的潜力。
