Abstract
The search for shielding materials against ionizing radiation is very important due to the harmful effect that these radiations cause on human health and the environment. In this work, new ceramic composites of ErBa2Cu3Ox/lead oxide (ErBaCuO/PbO) instead of pure lead are proposed and prepared to serve as promising alternative materials for gamma radiation protection. X-ray diffraction was used to examine the structural properties of the prepared ceramic composites. The analysis showed that all composites have an orthorhombic structure with Pmmm symmetry. The addition of PbO induced distortion of the crystal structure of the ErBCO system. The structural parameters including lattice constants and unit cell volume showed a great variability with the addition of PbO. The physical properties including the density and porosity of the prepared ceramic composites were also determined. It was found that the density values increased from 4510 kg/m(3) for 0 wt% to 4640, 4750, 4800 kg/m(3) for 2, 5, and 10 wt%, respectively, while the porosity reduced with increasing the PbO content. The Monte Carlo simulation was used to estimate the linear attenuation coefficients of the as-prepared ceramics at different energies of gamma-ray photons ranging from 0.059 to 1.408 MeV. Other shielding parameters were computed, including half-value thickness, transmission factor, and radiation protection efficiency. The results showed an improvement in radiation protection efficiency and a decrease in the transmission factor values with increasing the concentration of PbO. For example, the half-value thickness reduced from 1.949 to 1.832 cm while the radiation protection efficiency increased from 29.93 to 31.51%, at gamma-ray energy of 0.662 MeV, once the concentration of PbO was increased from 0 to 10 wt %, respectively.