Experimental and simulation assessment of gamma-radiation shielding properties of the polyester polymer reinforced with WO₃

In this study, the shielding features of six samples of the polyester (PE)/WO₃ polymer composite against gamma rays (¹³⁷Cs, ²²Na, ⁶⁰Co, and ¹³³Ba sources) were evaluated via an experimental setup in the laboratory, using GEANT4 and MCNP Monte Carlo codes, as well as Phy-X/PSD and XCOM online programs. To study the structure of the composites, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were conducted. Moreover, parameters such as the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), tenth-value layer (TVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z_eff), and effective electron density (N_eff) were calculated and compared for the six samples. The values of the MAC parameter for the six samples (W0, W1, W2, W3, W4, and W5) and for the experimental measurements are 0.0712 ± 0.003, 0.0714 ± 0.001, 0.0764 ± 0.002, 0.0791 ± 0.004, 0.0796 ± 0.006, and 0.0823 ± 0.003 cm²/g (662 keV), 0.0887 ± 0.002, 0.0889 ± 0.005, 0.0893 ± 0.007, 0.0902 ± 0.003, 0.0913 ± 0.008, and 0.0938 ± 0.002 cm²/g (511 keV),0.0577 ± 0.004, 0.0576 ± 0.006, 0.0568 ± 0.009, 0.0561 ± 0.002, 0.0560 ± 0.005, and 0.0551 ± 0.002 cm²/g (1.275 MeV),0.0615 ± 0.006, 0.0614 ± 0.008, 0.0605 ± 0.008, 0.0601 ± 0.002, 0.0596 ± 0.001, and 0.0593 ± 0.008 cm²/g (1.173 MeV),0.0581 ± 0.002, 0.0579 ± 0.003, 0.0572 ± 0.003, 0.0568 ± 0.003, 0.0565 ± 0.005, and 0.0560 ± 0.001 cm²/g (1.332 MeV), and 0.1012 ± 0.002, 0.1015 ± 0.001, 0.1035 ± 0.001, 0.1066 ± 0.005, 0.1099 ± 0.008, and 0.1201 ± 0.007 cm²/g (356 keV), respectively. According to the results, the W5 samples can be selected as the most effective shielding material among the samples. In addition, the experimental data and the simulated values obtained from the four mentioned programs were in good agreement, indicating that the Monte Carlo codes and online programs are reliable tools for studying nuclear reactions with high accuracy while also saving time and costs.