Assessment of shielding efficiency of highly energetic electromagnetic radiation for lead-free cuprate-class material: Effect of MnFe2O4 ratios

Abstract

In this work, efficient lead-free cuprate-based shielding materials mixed with different ratios (x = 0.1–2 wt%) of magnetic MnFe2O4 powder against nuclear radiation were proposed. The samples were prepared by using a mixture of raw materials of oxides for the preparation of the host cuprate Y1Ba2Cu3Oy materials and a mixture of nitrates in the presence of solvent for the formation of magnetic MnFe2O4 powder additive. The phase, crystalline structure, and composition were examined by X-ray diffraction. The main Y1Ba2Cu3Oy phase revealed good crystallinity and orthorhombic structure. As the ratio of magnetic MnFe2O4 powder additive increases, the orthorhombicity decreases. Gamma shielding performance was analyzed by using MNCP5 code. The analyses indicate that the addition of magnetic powder has an influence on the shielding performance of cuprate-class material. The radiation shielding performance of prepared materials is nearly the same with the low ratios of MnFe2O4 (i.e. x = 0.1 and 0.5 wt%). Yet, with further increasing the amount of MnFe2O4 beyond x = 0.5 wt%, a considerable detraction of shielding parameters was noticed, as estimated by the Monte Carlo simulation (MCNP-5 code). The linear attenuation coefficient of cuprate-class materials decreased by 19.6 %, 33.6 %, 19.3 %, and 19.7 %, respectively at 0.015 MeV, 0.1 MeV, 0.662 MeV, and 15 MeV when the MnFe2O4 concentration increased between 0.1 and 2 wt%.