Impact of WO3-Nanoparticles on Silicone Rubber for Radiation Protection Efficiency

Hanan Al-Ghamdi; Hanaa M Hemily; I H Saleh; Z F Ghataas; A A Abdel-Halim; M I Sayyed; Sabina Yasmin; Aljawhara H Almuqrin; Mohamed Elsafi

doi:10.3390/ma15165706

Impact of WO₃-Nanoparticles on Silicone Rubber for Radiation Protection Efficiency

Materials (Basel). 2022 Aug 18;15(16):5706. doi: 10.3390/ma15165706.

Authors

Hanan Al-Ghamdi¹, Hanaa M Hemily², I H Saleh², Z F Ghataas², A A Abdel-Halim³, M I Sayyed⁴, Sabina Yasmin⁵, Aljawhara H Almuqrin¹, Mohamed Elsafi⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Environmental Studies, Institute of Graduate Studies and Research, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21526, Egypt.
³ Department of Basic and Applied Science, College of Engineering and Technology, The Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria 1029, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Isra University, Amman 11622, Jordan.
⁵ Department of Physics, Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Chattogram 4349, Bangladesh.
⁶ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21511, Egypt.

Abstract

Silicone rubbers are a good choice for shielding materials because of having elastic and attenuating properties as well as cost-effectiveness. Thus, the aim of this study was to prepare ground-breaking silicone rubber samples by adding WO₃-nanoparticles and testing the performance of their radiation shielding ability against Cs-137, Co-60, and Am-241 gamma energy. Increasing the concentration of WO₃ nanoparticles in silicone rubber (SR) led to decreasing the half-value layer (HVL) and mean free path (MFP) values determined for the samples tested. Furthermore, the values of MFP and HVL upsurged according to the enhancement of the photon energy. It is noteworthy that the prepared silicone rubber (SR) systems with 50 and 60 wt% concentrations of WO₃-nanoparticles displayed lower HVL than the Bi₂O₃-containing silicone rubber (SR) systems. In the same way, studied silicone rubber SR-W60 represented the lowest HVL comprising iron ore containing silicone rubber.

Keywords: Am-241; Co-60; Cs-137; WO3-nanoparticles; silicone rubber.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2022R28), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.