Structural, Morphological, and Gamma Ray Shielding (GRS) Characterization of HVCMC/PVP/PEG Polymer Blend Encapsulated with Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles

Polymer blends and composites (PB and PCs) are novel class of developed materials which performance in the field of radiation preservation has been approved practically. The essential aim of this research is to estimate the influence of silica dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) additives on the radiation shielding properties of high viscosity carboxymethyl cellulose HVCMC, poly (N-vinyl pyrrolidone) PVP and polyethylene glycol PEG polymer blend (PB). In the present paper, HVCMC/PVP/PEG PB with 0, 0.015, 0.03 and 0.045 wt% of SiO(2)NPs were made using Petri dish casting method as a nanocomposites (NCs). The samples were labeled as k0,k1,k2 and k3 depending to HVCMC/PVP/PEG portions with SiO(2)NPs. Structural includes X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR) and optical microscopy (OM) were characterized. The attenuation coefficients were also calculated using caesium-137 (Cs-137, 662 keV) and cobalt-60 (Co-60, 1173 and 1332 keV) sources. Results referred that increasing of SiO(2)NPs from 0% to 0.045% leads to raise in the values of attenuation coefficient and decrease the (N/N-o) values, furthermore 0.045% of SiO(2)NPs doped is the ultimate optimum contain of this addition. While, the important effect on GRS characterizes happened within k3 sample for each Cs-137 and Co-60 radiation sources.