Effect of lead nanoparticles on the radiation shielding characteristics of carbon fiber/epoxy composites

Materials with shielding capabilities against gamma radiation are important for nowadays applications in order to alleviate radiation damage. This study investigates the shielding characteristics of carbon fiber/epoxy composites incorporating lead nanoparticles (Pb-NP) of variable weight fractions. The composites in this experimental study are prepared using the hand-layup vacuum bagging process at room temperature. Mass attenuation coefficients are calculated for composites with variable Pb-NP weight fractions based on radiation intensity measurements taken using NaI (Tl) scintillation detector. The results show that adding small fractions of lead nanoparticles to the matrix phase of the composite material leads to improving its shielding properties, including their linear attenuation coefficient, mass attenuation coefficient and the Half-Value Layer (HVL). The results also show that mass attenuation coefficients of composite material with added Pb-NPs are higher than those of pure lead. For validation purposes, the experimental results are compared to computational results obtained using MCNP5 code for the same weight fractions of Pb-NPs. The two sets of results were found to be in good agreement with a maximum relative error of ∼16%.