Radiation attenuation attributes of Pb-free titanate-based perovskite modified with M-type hexagonal ferrite addition

Ionizing radiation (IonR) such as beta and alpha, positrons, X-rays, and gamma rays cause harmful effects on living organisms, especially humans, and they represent a fundamental problem in the modern age. IonR-protecting materials are compulsory to avert this problem. Hence, the development of good performant IonR shields has gained huge interest. In this work, we investigated the radiation shielding peculiarities of Pb-free barium titanium (BT) added with different amounts of M-type hexaferrite (MH). The impact of MH inclusion on the phase, structural, and shielding capacity of BT sample was systematically investigated. PXRD analysis showed that all BT phases crystallized into a cubic structure. SEM images along with elemental mapping revealed the successful formation of (BT-MH) composites. The radiation shielding peculiarities were measured using HPGe detector and three radioactive sources (Co-60, Cs-137, and Am-241). It was found that at 0.6617, 1.173, and 1.333 MeV, the ceramics with higher MH content have higher mass attenuation coefficient values. The MAC values reduce when the energy increases, which indicates that the ceramics have better shielding capabilities against low energy photons. The half value layer results showed that by adding more MH into the ceramic system, more photons are attenuated at that energy, meaning a thinner shield is needed to attenuate half of the incoming photons. We evaluated the radiation shielding efficiency (RSE) and we found that at energy of 0.05954 MeV, BT-MH2 has the highest RSE of 99.836%.

Automated summary

The impact of different amounts of M-type hexaferrite (MH) on the radiation shielding properties of barium titanium (BT) ceramics was investigated. It was found that higher MH content in the ceramics resulted in higher mass attenuation coefficient values, indicating better shielding capabilities against low energy photons. The addition of more MH also led to a thinner shield being needed to attenuate half of the incoming photons. The highest radiation shielding efficiency achieved was 99.836% for BT-MH2 at an energy of 0.05954 MeV.