Conductive natural and waste rubbers composites-loaded with lead powder as environmental flexible gamma radiation shielding material

It is well known that materials with lead (Pb) content are very effective as protective materials against radiation. Natural rubber (NR) has been loaded with 30 phr of N220 black (critical concentration) as a conductive and reinforcing filler. These rubber matrices are loaded with different concentrations of Pb powder (up to 100 phr) as filler. Gamma attenuation study was carried out using 3″ × 3″ NaI (Tl) (scintillation detector) gamma-ray spectrometer for (Cs-137), (Co-60), (Ba-133), and (Eu-152). The effect on the shielding property of Pb/NR composite was studied by varying the content of Pb and photon energy. It was found that the addition of Pb filler remarkably increases the linear attenuation coefficient (μ) of Pb/NR composites, especially for low photon energy. Linear attenuation coefficient experimental measures and theoretical calculations (using the XCOM code) were performed. It was noted that there is a reasonable agreement between measured and calculated results. In this paper, gamma-ray radiation shielding parameters are also studied for composites based on waste rubber. Its experimental results showed that Pb/W/NR composites have better γ shielding ability compared to Pb/NR ones at the Pb contents so, these are promising materials for fabricating protecting clothes against radiation in addition to their low cost and effective aid to get a clean environment. (paper)