Fabrication and Radiation Attenuation of Linear Low Density Polyethylene with Iron Slag in the Range of Peak Potentials 50 kVp to 150 kVp

Abstract

The emergence of polymer composite materials has potential advantages for shielding application form low energy radiation. Four different samples of different ratio of iron slag (0%, 1%, 5%, and 10%) based on a linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) polymer mixed were prepared and examined in this study. The measured densities of fabricated LLDPE samples were in the range of 0.925 to 1.004 g cm−3. The distribution of ironpreserving particles in an LLDPE polymer sample was also demonstrated in this study by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The linear and mass attenuation coefficients of the four samples were determined by using eight standard radiation qualities of different applied voltages (kVp) of 50, 60, 70, 84, 90, 105, 119, and 150 kVp. Moreover, the exposure radiation quality used with different energies was calculated through the half value layer (HVL). It was found that the dose value for different combinations of beam quality including the HVL and kVp did not exceed the recommended values given by the IEC 61267 standard with the effective energies of 28.7, 30.0, 33.0, 36.2, 37.7, 39.6, 44.3, and 50.0 keV. The results of the linear attenuation coefficients of four LLDPE samples were between 0.1886 cm−1 and 0.8412 cm−1. The composite that includes 10% iron slag has the highest attenuation across all incident beam energies. In addition, it exhibited the greatest mass attenuation coefficient among the selected samples. Furthermore, when the mean free path (MFP) was measured, the LLDPE + 10% iron slag composite has a lower MFP value which indicates it is best material for shielding photons in the selected energy range in our investigation.