Experimental study on the radiation protecting ability of composites containing barium titanate and nanospinel ferrite

The search for new, non-toxic, and effective alternatives for radiation protection to lead-based materials is highly demanded in the present era. In the present research, a series of ceramic composites of barium titanate (BaTiO3, BTO) added with different amounts (x = 0, 5, 10, and 20 wt%) of nano spinel ferrite (Co0.8N-i0.1Mn0.1Fe1.9Ce0.1O4; NSF) were fabricated to evaluate their shielding performance against gamma radiation. The different samples were subjected to photons with energy ranging from 0.060 to 1.333 MeV emitted from Co -60, Cs-137, and Am-241-point sources, and the intensity of photons was detected using the HPGe detector. The prepared ceramics were first characterized by the XRD diffraction technique to examine the phase and crystal structure. The analysis showed the successful formation of the desired composites. The linear attenuation co-efficient (LAC) values were determined experimentally to test the shielding performance of the composites. The LAC achieves its maximum values at an energy level of 0.06 MeV (31.88, 31.98, and 32.12 cm-1 for the com-posites with x = 5, 10, and 20 wt%, respectively, then it decreases at 0.662 MeV to 0.459, 0.461, and 0.465 cm-1 for the same mentioned compositions. LAC results showed that the current ceramics have a reasonably strong attenuation efficiency at low energy and can block many photons. The highest radiation protection efficiency (RPE) has occurred at 0.06 MeV and it is in the order of 95%. The RPE of the composite with x = 20 wt% is slightly greater than the RPE of the other ceramic samples. The half-value layer (HVL) data demonstrated that the shielding efficiency is related to the composition of the material, where the composite with x = 20 wt% showed a lower HVL than the other composites.