Evaluation of radioprotection properties of some selected ceramic samples

In this study, the gamma radiation attenuation features of barium zirconat, barium titanate (IV), magnesium nitride, barium pyrophosphate and silicon carbide were studied using the narrow beam geometrical setup in the energy range of 81 keV-1333 keV. The mass attenuation coefficients have been measured and then used to obtain half value layers, mean free paths and effective atomic numbers of the present materials. It is found that the change in the mass attenuation coefficient is considerable for low photon energies (between 81 and 276 keV), whereas the change in this parameter is comparatively small between 303 and 835 keV photon energies. At high energies (1173, 1275 and 1333 keV), the results showed that the mass attenuation coefficient values for all samples are almost the same which revealed that the present ceramics does not have a significant effect on the amount of attenuation of photon at higher energies. The radiation protection efficiency results revealed that BaZrO3 has the maximum capability in attenuation of gamma photons followed by BaTiO3 and Ba2P2O7, especially at low energies.