Rapid fabrication, magnetic, and radiation shielding characteristics of NiFe2O4 nanoparticles

Abstract

This study aims to prepare NiFe2O4 nanoparticles using a glycine assisted auto-combustion method. Characterization of the investigated ferrite was achieved by XRD, FTIR and TEM techniques. In addition, the magnetic properties of the as prepared ferrite using the VSM technique were determined. Furthermore, using MCNPX code, the X-ray/gamma ray shielding characteristics of NiFe2O4 nanoparticles in the energy range of 0.015–15 MeV have been evaluated. In this study, a comparison was made between the shielding properties of the prepared sample and other typical gamma-ray shielding materials (Ordinary concretes, basalt magnetite, hematite serpentine, and Ilmenite limonite), and various shielding materials (P2 Polymer Guanine, T1, PCNK60, VR3 volcanic rock, SLGC-E5, LBZ4, RS-360, BBSN5.7, and TZE-F). The obtained results show that the current prepared sample provides full (100%) x-ray protection and effective performance for gamma-ray shielding at energies up to 15 MeV. The current work creates new opportunities for the low-temperature, simple, effective, and affordable synthesis of nanomaterials for usage in display device applications and X-ray/gamma-ray shielding.