Comparative Study between Lead Oxide and Lead Nitrate Polymer as Gamma-Radiation Shielding Materials

Abstract

In this work, the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/lead oxide and the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/lead nitrate composites were prepared as gamma-radiation shielding materials. The investigated materials were prepared with three different weight percentage of lead oxide and lead nitrate (30, 50 and 70 wt%). The mass attenuation coefficients ( μ m ) for all composite samples were measured experimentally at 511 and 661.6 keV photon energies. The measurements were made by performing transmission experiments with a 3'' × 3'' NaI (Tl) scintillation detector, which had an energy resolution of 7% at 0.662 MeV for the gamma-rays from the decay of 137 Cs. The effective atomic numbers ( Z eff ) and the effective electron densities ( N ef f ) were determined experimentally. Also they were determined theoretically using the obtained μ m values for the studied composites samples by WinXCom program. The obtained results show that the experimental values of the composites are found to be in a good agreement with the theoretical values. It is recognized that the mass attenuation coefficient ( μ m ), effective atomic numbers ( Z eff ) and the effective electron densities ( N eff ) are increased in the composite samples which contain lead oxides than which contain lead nitrates. Finally, the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/lead oxide is better than Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/lead nitrate polymer as gamma radiation shielding.