Volcanic Rock Reinforced Epoxy Composites for Gamma Ray Shielding

Abstract

In the present study, gamma ray shielding capability of epoxy resin polymer matrix was tried to enhance with three volcanic rockpowders collected from different regions of Van, Turkey. The chemical contents of the volcanic rocks were determined by X-rayFluorescence spectroscopy. The novel epoxy/volcanic rock composites were prepared with different volcanic rock contents varyingfrom 0 % wt. to 40% wt. The gamma ray shielding performances of the samples were measured experimentally by NaI(Tl) detector forthe photons with of 81 keV and 356 keV energies emitted from Ba-133 point radioactive source. The abilities of the samples to shieldgamma radiation were evaluated in terms their mass attenuation coefficient, half layer value thickness and mean free path distance. Itwas determined that the low cost epoxy/volcanic rock composites have a promising potential to be utilized as a radiation shieldingmedium for the gamma rays. In particular, among all volcanic rock additives the volcanic rock additive having the highest hematitecontent gained the best gamma ray shielding ability to pure epoxy for both photon energies.