Impacts of the calcination temperature on the structural and radiation shielding properties of the NASICON compound synthesized from zircon minerals

The present work aims to fabricate Na1+xZr2SixP3-xO12 compound at various calcination temperatures based on the zircon mineral. The fabricated compound was calcinated at 250, 500, and 1000 degrees C. The effect of calcination temperature on the structure, crystal phase, and radiation shielding properties was studied for the fabricated compound. The X-ray diffraction diffractometer demonstrates that, the monoclinic crystal phase appeared at a calcination temperature of 250 degrees C and 500 degrees C is totally transformed to a high -symmetry hexagonal crystal phase under a calcination temperature of 1000 degrees C. The radiation shielding capacity was also qualified for the fabricated compounds using the Monte Carlo N-Particle transport code in the g-photons energy interval between 15keV and 122keV. The impacts of calcination temperature on the g-ray shielding behavior were clarified in the present study, where the linear attenuation coefficient was enhanced by 218% at energy of 122keV, when the calcination temperature increased from 250 to 1000 degrees C, respectively.(c) 2023 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).