Preparation and radiation attenuation properties of ceramic ball clay enhanced with micro and nano ZnO particles

The radiation shielding properties of ball clays produced with various percentages of 5, 10, 15, and 20 w.t% of micro and nano ZnO were experimentally evaluated in this paper. The effects of micro and nano ZnO on the attenuation competence of the prepared ball clays were compared. At all energies, we discovered that the ball clay with nano ZnO has a higher linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) than ZnO with microparticles. This finding suggests that nano-sized ZnO-ball clay samples absorbed more photons than microsized ZnO ball clay samples. The half-value layer (HVL) for the ball clay prepared with micro and nano ZnO was reported. At all the energies tested, we discovered that the ball clay with nano ZnO has a slightly lower HVL than the ball clay with micro ZnO. The HVL at 0.06 MeV is found to be 0.934 cm for the ball clay containing 5 w.t% micro ZnO and 0.866 cm for the ball clay containing 5 w.t% nano ZnO. We concluded from the HVL results that if the space in which the shield will be used is limited, the ball clay with nano ZnO is more useful because a thinner specimen with nano ZnO can attenuate half of the incoming photons. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to investigate the properties of ZnO/ball clay. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

This paper experimentally evaluated the radiation shielding properties of ball clays produced with different percentages of micro and nano ZnO. The results showed that ball clay with nano ZnO had a higher linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) and a slightly lower half-value layer (HVL) compared to ball clay with micro ZnO. This suggests that ball clay with nano ZnO is more effective in attenuating radiation in limited spaces.