Hedaya Ali, Elsafi Mohamed, Al-Saleh Wafa M, Saleh Ibrahim H
Environmental Studies Department, Institute of Graduate Studies and Research, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21511, Egypt.
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21511, Egypt.
Polymers (Basel). 2024 Jul 26;16(15):2125. doi: 10.3390/polym16152125.
In this work, we studied the effect of bismuth oxide particle size and its attenuation capacity as a filler additive in epoxy resins. Six samples were prepared according to the amount of microparticles and nanoparticles in the sample and were coded as ERB-1, ERB-2, ERB-3, ERB-4, ERB-5, and ERB-6. One of the composite epoxies contained BiO microparticles at a 50:50 ratio (ERB-6) and was chosen as the control composite, and the number of microparticles (MPs) was gradually decreased and replaced by nanoparticles (NPs) to produce epoxy-containing BiO nanoparticles at a 50:50 ratio (ERB-1). The morphological and thermal characteristics of the studied composites were tested. The attenuation capability of the prepared composites, which is determined by the BiO particle size, was determined experimentally using a semiconductor detector, an HPGe-detector, and three different gamma-ray point sources (Am-241, Co-60, and Cs-137). The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) of ERB-3, which contained 30% nanoparticles and 20% microparticles, had the highest value compared to the other composites at all the energies discussed, while the ERB-6 composite had the lowest value at all energies. The radiation-shielding efficiency (RSE) of the prepared samples was determined at all discussed energies; at 662 keV, the radiation-shielding efficiency values were 15.97%, 13.94%, and 12.55% for ERB-3, ERB-1, and ERB-6, respectively. The statistics also proved that the attenuation capacities of the samples containing a combination of nanoparticles and microparticles were much superior to those of the samples containing only microparticles or nanoparticles. A ranking of the samples based on their attenuation capacity is as follows: ERB-3 > ERB-4 > ERB-2 > ERB-1 > ERB-5 > ERB-6.
在本研究中，我们研究了氧化铋粒径及其作为环氧树脂填充添加剂的衰减能力。根据样品中微粒和纳米颗粒的含量制备了六个样品，分别编码为ERB - 1、ERB - 2、ERB - 3、ERB - 4、ERB - 5和ERB - 6。其中一种复合环氧树脂含有比例为50:50的BiO微粒（ERB - 6），被选为对照复合材料，然后逐渐减少微粒（MPs）的数量，并用纳米颗粒（NPs）替代，以制备含有比例为50:50的BiO纳米颗粒的环氧树脂（ERB - 1）。对所研究复合材料的形态和热特性进行了测试。使用半导体探测器、HPGe探测器和三种不同的伽马射线点源（Am - 241、Co - 60和Cs - 137），通过实验测定了由BiO粒径决定的制备复合材料的衰减能力。在所有讨论的能量下，含有30%纳米颗粒和20%微粒的ERB - 3的线性衰减系数（LAC）与其他复合材料相比具有最高值，而ERB - 6复合材料在所有能量下的值最低。在所有讨论的能量下测定了制备样品的辐射屏蔽效率（RSE）；在662 keV时，ERB - 3、ERB - 1和ERB - 6的辐射屏蔽效率值分别为15.97%、13.94%和12.55%。统计数据还证明，含有纳米颗粒和微粒组合的样品的衰减能力远优于仅含有微粒或纳米颗粒的样品。根据衰减能力对样品进行的排名如下：ERB - 3 > ERB - 4 > ERB - 2 > ERB - 1 > ERB - 5 > ERB - 6。
