THE INVESTIGATION OF PROTECTIVE PROPERTIES OF IRON-CONTAINING COMPOSITE FOR Х-RAY SHIELDING

Abstract

The paper presents experimental investigation of the efficiency of X-ray shielding by composite metal-containing materials with iron filler. It demonstrates that for “soft” radiation the shielding coefficients are 7-8. Mixing the liquid metalpolymer mixture with ultrasonic radiation with a frequency of 23 kHz with amplitudes of 40 - 45 μm significantly increases the shielding efficiency (by 2-2.5 times). The calculated mass attenuation coefficients of X-ray radiation show that for radiation energies of 8-12 keV the iron-containing material has better protective properties than the material with lead content. It offers the calculation, which takes into account the actual density of the material to determine the mass attenuation coefficient. In this case, the charge number of the element that provides scattering of X-rays remains unchanged. It is shown that this indicator should be recalculated to determine the contribution of mechanisms other than the photoeffect of ionizing radiation scattering (formation of electron-positron pairs, Compton effect). To increase the efficiency of composite X-ray protective materials, it is advisable to increase the dispersion and weight content of iron concentrate in the polymer matrix. At a ratio of iron and polymer 3: 1 (by weight) the material loses flexibility and can be used in the form of facing tiles. To increase the shielding coefficients of “hard” radiation, it is advisable to add a small amount of tungsten compounds to the material. A promising area of research on the use of lead-free materials is the increased dispersion of fillers from elements with lower charge numbers