Shape-Controlled Iron-Paraffin Composites as γ- and X-ray Shielding Materials Formable by Warmth-of-Hands-Derived Plasticity

Jolanta Sobczak; Adrian Truszkiewicz; Emil Korczeniewski; Aleksandra Cyganiuk; Artur P Terzyk; Anna Kolanowska; Rafał G Jędrysiak; Sławomir Boncel; Gaweł Żyła

doi:10.1021/acsaenm.3c00557

Shape-Controlled Iron-Paraffin Composites as γ- and X-ray Shielding Materials Formable by Warmth-of-Hands-Derived Plasticity

ACS Appl Eng Mater. 2023 Dec 1;1(12):3237-3253. doi: 10.1021/acsaenm.3c00557. eCollection 2023 Dec 22.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Doctoral School of the Rzeszów University of Technology, Rzeszów University of Technology, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland.
² Department of Photomedicine and Physical Chemistry, Medical College of University of Rzeszow, University of Rzeszow, Warzywna 1A Street, 35-310 Rzeszów, Poland.
³ Faculty of Chemistry, Physicochemistry of Carbon Materials Research Group, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Gagarin Street 7, 87-100 Torun, Poland.
⁴ Department of Organic Chemistry, Bioorganic Chemistry and Biotechnology, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
⁵ Biotechnology Centre, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
⁶ Centre for Organic and Nanohybrid Electronics, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
⁷ Department of Physics and Medical Engineering, Rzeszow University of Technology, 35-959 Rzeszow, Poland.

Abstract

The design of shielding materials against ionizing radiation while simultaneously displaying enhanced multifunctional characteristics remains challenging. Here, for the first time, we present moldable paraffin-based iron nano- and microcomposites attenuating γ- and X-radiation. The moldability was gained by the warmth-of-hands-driven plasticity, which allowed for obtaining a specific shape of the composites at room temperature. The manufactured composites contained iron particles of various sizes, ranging from 22 nm to 63 μm. The target materials were widely characterized using XRD, NMR, Raman, TGA, SEM, and EDX. In the case of microcomposites, the shielding properties were developed at two concentrations: 10 and 50 wt %. The statistically significant results indicate that the iron particle size has a negligible effect on the shielding properties of the nano- and microcomposites. On the other hand, the higher iron particle contents significantly affected the attenuating ability, which emerged even as superior to the elemental aluminum in the X-ray range: at a 70 kV anode voltage, the half value layer was 6.689, 1.882, and 0.462 cm for aluminum, paraffin + 10 wt % Fe 3.5-6.5 μm, and paraffin + 50 wt % Fe 3.5-6.5 μm microcomposites, respectively. Importantly, the elaborated methodology-in situ cross-verified in the hospital studies recording real-life sampling-opens the pathway to high-performance, eco-friendly, lightweight, and recyclable shields manufactured via fully reproducible and scalable protocols.