Synthesis and shielding assessment of polymer composite of PVC/Bi2O3/WO3 against photons using GEANT4 and MCNP Monte Carlo nuclear codes

Abstract Due to the potential hazards for the environment and humans, protection from nuclear radiations has been a vital issue for researchers. In this work, the shielding properties of four samples (BiW0, BiW2, BiW5, and BiW10) of the PVC/Bi 2 O 3 /WO 3 polymer composites against photons with the energy of 662 keV is studied using experimental, simulation (Monte Carlo codes of GEANT4 and MCNP), and theoretical (online software of XCOM) methods. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polymer as a novel polymer matrix has not been applied for shielding aims previously. Moreover, adding double high-Z elements of Bi and W to PVC could be an affordable method for enhancing shielding performance of PVC against photons via decreasing costs and maintaining the structure of the polymer. After synthesizing the PVC/Bi 2 O 3 /WO 3 polymer samples, the XRD and SEM test were taken to assess the structure of the samples. For evaluating the shielding features of the samples, MAC, LAC, HVL, TVL, MFP, Z eff , N eff , and LET parameters were calculated. The values of MAC for the experimental measurements were obtained as (0.0754 ± 0.0068, 0.0835 ± 0.0108, 0.0842 ± 0.0035, and 0.0978 ± 0.0089 cm 2 /g), which are in good agreement with the simulated and theoretical results, with the highest difference of 12%. As the results denote, the values of MAC increase by rising the density and amount of Bi 2 O 3 and WO 3 in the samples. The presence of Bi and W elements in the samples led to an increase in the interactions of photons with materials and higher absorption of photons in the samples. Therefore, the highest MAC results belong to BiW10 (with density of 1.532 g/cm 3 ), which makes the sample the best shield candidate. PVC polymer and their composites can easily be synthesized and shaped. Moreover, due to their suitable density and high flexibility feature, they can easily be moved and used in any part of nuclear imaging and radiation centers.