Experimental and Monte Carlo simulation study on photons shielding properties of ZrO2-reinforced polyester composites utilizing GEANT4 and MCNP codes

In this study, the gamma-ray shielding properties of polyester (PE)/ZrO2 polymer composites were evaluated over the energy range of 0.01–10 MeV using the Monte Carlo codes GEANT4 and MCNPX, as well as the software packages XCOM, Phy-X, EpiXS, and NGCal. In addition, experimental investigations were carried out at an energy of 662 keV using a 137Cs source (100 mCi). In this paper, parameters including the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), tenth-value layer (TVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Zeff)and effective electron density (Neff) were calculated using the aforementioned software tools, The structural characteristics of the materials were also investigated using XRD and SEM techniques. The simulation results were compared with the experimental data, showing good agreement between them. Furthermore, the lead equivalent thickness (LET) was also investigated, and it was demonstrated that increasing the ZrO2 filler content leads to a gradual increase in the lead equivalent thickness. As observed from the figures and tables, the gamma-ray shielding performance of the PE/ZrO2 composites improves with increasing ZrO2 content, indicating their potential applicability in radiation shielding applications.