Gamma-ray attenuation parameters for polymer composites reinforced with BaTiO3 and CaWO4 compounds

Abstract

Various composite shielding materials have favorable structural, mechanical, physical, and nuclear properties, besides their economic affordability. Such properties have widened the usage of composites around the globe in large-scale installations such as nuclear medical facilities, nuclear power plants, and spent nuclear fuel storage. In the current study, two groups of polymer composites have been prepared and their gamma-ray attenuation characteristics have been investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Four samples of each group have been prepared by varying the doped material (BaTiO3 and CaWO4) percentage between 5% and 20% with increments of 5%. To investigate the gamma-ray attenuation features, the linear attenuation coefficient, radiation protection efficiency, half value layer, mean free path, and effective atomic number parameters for these polymer composites reinforced with BaTiO3 and CaWO4 were obtained in the energy range between 59.5 and 1408.0 keV (at 22 different energies) using narrow beam transmission geometry. The experiments were performed with the aid of an HPGe detector and eight different radioisotope point sources. According to the experimental and theoretical results, BaTiO3 (20%) and CaWO4 (20%) have better gamma-ray attenuation properties than the other prepared polymer composites. Moreover, CaWO4 (20%) has better gamma-ray attenuation features than BaTiO3 (20%). © 2020 Elsevier Ltd