Development Of A Novel Shielding Material For Radiation Protection In Air And Space Technology
Cosmic radiation is the most important and prominent issue for space exploration in modern age because it threatens human health and causes damages to electrical and software systems. Several studies have demonstrated the potential cancer, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal impact of galactic cosmic radiation. In many fields, lead is known as an ideal shielding material for radiation but it has significant problems such as being extremely expensive, having toxic effects and failing in neutron shielding. Neutron is the most hazardous particle among other radiation types. Keeping all these in mind, the objective of this study is to develop a novel, non-toxic and inexpensive radiation shielding material that protects against neutrons, gamma and X-rays.
Initially, sodium pentaborate was synthesized, characterized by using FT-IR, AAS, XRD and B2O3 analyses, and applied to the produced fabrics and aircraft canopies. After implementation, those materials were subjected to radiation tests. The fabric which contains only 230 g of sodium pentaborate has reached 75.21% absorption rate of neutron. While sodium pentaborate improved neutron shielding properties of materials outstandingly, it was not an ideal shielding material against gamma-rays. The obtained results prompted us to back it up by another gamma-ray absorber. But it should be emphasized that radiation experiments with sodium pentaborate is a novel implementation in the world to the best of our literature knowledge.
Keywordsó Sodium pentaborate, cosmic radiation, neutron, gamma-ray, shielding, absorption, radiation, fabric, lead.