Investigation of Mechanical and Radiative Attenuation Traits of PMMA/ZnO/Bi2O3 Hybrid Nanocomposites

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate the radiative protection ability and mechanical properties of five shields models of the hybrid nanocomposite system of (0.92-x) PMMA+0.08ZnO+(x) Bi2O3 (where × = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.25 wt.). The change of some mechanical properties of hardness test, impact Strength, and compressive Strength of these hybrid shield have been experimentally studied. The system of NaI detector and Ra-226 radioactive source that emits γ-rays with energies of 0.2952, 0.3519, 0.6093, 1.1203, 1.7650 MeV were used. The experimental values of linear attenuation coefficients (LAC) were calculated using the transmission factor (TF) as a function of hybrid shields and used to interpolate the mass attenuation coefficients (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP) and radiation protection efficiency (RPE). The theoretical values of these attenuation parameters were obtained using XCOM and Phy-X/PSD online programs to compare them with experimental calculations. The process of adding Bi2O3 ratio achieved an improvement in the compressive strength and hardness for PMMA. The experimental results of radiative protection ability showed the values of LAC and RPE were inversely proportional, and the values of HVL and MFP were directly proportional to the increase in γ-ray energy. The increase in the concentration of Bi2O3 addition and thus the shield density led to an increase in both of LAC and RPE values and a decrease in the values of MFP and HVL values for all values of γ-ray energies. The experimental results showed a clear improvement in the parameters of the radiation attenuation of the prepared hybrid shields and achieved great agreement with the results of the theoretical programs calculations for the relationship of the attenuation parameters as a function of γ-ray energies at all studied shields.The shield of 0.67PMMA:0.08ZnO:0.25Bi2O3 achieved the best results in mechanical and radiological tests.