Experimental Comparison of PbO and BaO Addition Effect on Gamma Ray Shielding Performance of Epoxy Polymer

Abstract

This study was devoted to investigate the gamma ray shielding abilities of the epoxy composites prepared by using two differentreinforcing materials: barium oxide and lead oxide. The Epoxy/PbO and Epoxy/BaO composites were produced by using 10 wt.%, 20wt.%, and 40 wt.% reinforcing materials to obtain low weight radiation shielders. The heaviness of the samples were compared withsome conventional shielding materials such as lead, steel, concrete etc. The gamma ray shielding performance of the pure epoxy andthe composites were measured experimentally by using NaI(Tl) detector. In the experiments, Ba-133 point radioactive source was alsoutilized as a gamma ray source with the 81 keV and 356 keV energies. As the gamma ray shielding parameters of the composites, themass attenuation coefficient, half layer value and tenth layer value thicknesses and mean free path distance were considered. Aftercomparison of the related parameters of the PbO and BaO added epoxy composites, it was revealed that the gamma radiation shieldingperformance of the PbO added epoxy composite can also be obtained by adding BaO to the epoxy. However, to achieve the sameperformance, BaO should be added twice as much as the PbO additive percentage. On the other hand, it was determined that 40 wt.%BaO added epoxy composite exhibits a better radiation shielding performance than steel, concrete and Gd2O3 nanoparticle added epoxycomposite for the photons with 81 keV and 356 keV energies. Thus, a lightweight and non-toxic gamma-ray shielding material can beproduced by using an Epoxy/BaO composite.