Designing a boron nitride polyethylene composite for shielding neutrons-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Designing a boron nitride polyethylene composite for shielding neutrons

Published:2023-10-01 Issue:10 Volume:11 Page:
ISSN:2166-532X
Container-title:APL Materials
language:en
Short-container-title:

Author:

Vira A. D.¹^ORCID,Mone E. M.¹,Ryan E. A.²^ORCID,Connolly P. T.³^ORCID,Smith K.⁴^ORCID,Roecker C. D.⁴^ORCID,Mesick K. E.⁴^ORCID,Orlando T. M.¹⁵^ORCID,Jiang Z.¹^ORCID,First P. N.¹^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology 1 , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA

2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology 2 , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA

3. George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology 3 , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA

4. Space Science and Applications (ISR-1), Los Alamos National Laboratory 4 , Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA

5. School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology 5 , Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA

Abstract

Neutrons are encountered in many different fields, including condensed matter physics, space exploration, nuclear power, and healthcare. Neutrons interacting with a biological target produce secondary charged particles that are damaging to human health. The most effective way to shield neutrons is to slow them to thermal energies and then capture the thermalized neutrons. These factors lead us to consider potential materials solutions for neutron shields that maximize the protection of humans while minimizing the shield mass and adapt well to modern additive manufacturing techniques. Using hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as a capture medium and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as a thermalization medium, we aim to design the optimal internal structure of h10BN/HDPE composites by minimizing the effective dose, which is a measure of the estimated radiation damage exposure for a human. Through Monte Carlo simulations in Geant4, we find that the optimal structure reduces the effective dose up to a factor of 72 over aluminum (Al) and up to a factor of 4 over HDPE; this is a significant improvement in shielding effectiveness that could dramatically reduce the radiation exposure of occupational workers.

Funder

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute

Publisher

AIP Publishing

Subject

General Engineering,General Materials Science

Link

https://pubs.aip.org/aip/apm/article-pdf/doi/10.1063/5.0163377/18147885/101104_1_5.0163377.pdf

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