Investigation of X-ray shielding properties of Au nano-composite-based polyaniline

Abstract

Au nanocomposite-based polyaniline (PANI) was prepared successfully by in situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of dodecylbenzene sulphonic acid (DBSA) as stabilizer of gold nanoparticles (NPs) and ammonium persulphate (APS) as an initiator. Their structure and electrical conductivity properties were studied. In the next step, PANI/Au nanocomposites in different weight ratios (5, 10 and 20 wt%) and thicknesses (1, 1.5 and 2 mm) were fabricated by in situ chemical polymerization method. The nanocomposites were prepared in tablets form, with different per cent weights and thickness. Electrical conductivity of nanocomposites was measured by four probe method. Morphology and microstructure of prepared nanocomposites were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), EDX and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The diameter of gold nanoparticles was measured by (XRD) and it was resulted 28 nm. Finally, X-ray photon interaction parameters such as attenuation coefficient (μ) and X-ray attenuation percentage were investigated. The obtained results suggest that the prepared nanocomposites can be employed at various devices as an effective X-ray attenuator, especially in the energies of 14–60 keV. The maximum absorption is occurred when the composite material has the highest per cent of weight (w/w 20%) and maximum thickness (2 mm).