Polarizability, metallization criterion, and radiation attenuation performance of pure and Ag-doped poly (vinyl alcohol) polymers for advanced shielding applications

The noted Design of a new and effective radiation shielding material is a growing demand to reduce the harmful effects of ionizing radiation in medical and nuclear applications. In this research article, three silver nitrate (AgNO3) doped PVA polymers were reported to serve as potential shielding materials against gamma ray. These polymers were tested in terms of their polarizability, optical transmission, and metallization properties. Furthermore, the radiation shielding performance of the involved polymers was assessed by Geant4 simulations based on Monte Carlo approach over a large range of energies up to 15 MeV. The results indicate that the density of the present polymers increased from 1.19 g/cm(3) for pure-PVA to 1.41 g/cm(3) for 5% AgNO3 doped PVA sample. At high energies, exceeding 150 keV, LAC values of all investigated samples become almost independent of their chemical composition. For Pure-PVA polymer, the LAC values start from its highest values of 1.358 cm(-1) at 15 keV then decrease with increasing energy to be 0.022 cm(-1) at 15 MeV. At all penetration depths and energies, EABF values were higher for Pure-PVA than those of other polymers. The AgNO3 addition has a positive impact to improve the shielding performance of the polymer to be close to that of ordinary concrete (standard radiation shield).