Evaluation of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) polymer reinforced with Bi and TiO2 nanopowders for gamma and neutron shielding

Abstract

Abstract 3D printer technology has recently become easily reachable technology and are used to create simple or complex structures with high-quality. Its superior advantages could also be useful on the production of effective radiation shielding materials. On this purpose, the presented work studies the gamma and neutron shielding effectiveness of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) sample, a 3D printing material, reinforced with Bi and TiO2 nanopowders at various gamma and neutron energies. The gamma shielding properties were evaluated using experimental (High Purity Germanium detector system), theoretical (WinXCOM computer program) and simulation techniques (GEANT4 and FLUKA) in a wide gamma energy region ranging from 59.5 to 1332.5 keV. The investigation on neutron attenuation capabilities of the printed composites were performed with help of simulation and theoretical approaches for various sample thickness and neutron energies. The half value layer of ABS-Bi10 sample is found to be as 4.9565 cm, which is much smaller than some commercial polymers: polyvinylidenechloride, polyamide, polyacrylonitrile, polyphenylenesulfide, and unsaturated polyester. With the usage of 3D printing technology, significant enhancements in neutron and gamma shielding were reported.