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Published on: April 13, 2016
Correlation between structural features and gamma-radiation interaction in BiOI/SnO2 nanocomposites: An experimental
Naveed Rahman1, Ashmita Acharya2, Prashant N Patil3
1Department of Chemistry, M. S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bengaluru, 560058, India.
None:
The advancement of lead-free radiation shielding materials has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to the environmental and health hazards associated with conventional lead-based shields. The present study, experimentally investigates the interaction of gamma radiation with Bismuth Oxyiodide (BiOI), Tin(IV) Oxide (SnO2), and their nanocomposites. Co-precipitation method was employed to synthesize BiOI and SnO2 and the composites were prepared through mechanical mixing followed by calcination. Synthesized nanocomposites were characterized using XRD, FESEM, and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). XRD revealed the formation of tetragonal BiOI and tetragonal rutile phase of SnO2. FESEM revealed the coexistence of layered nanosheet structures of BiOI and SnO2 within the composite structure. Optical studies showed band gap values ranging from 1.98 eV for BiOI to 3.66 eV for SnO2, with intermediate values observed for the composites. Furthermore, the experimentally determined gamma radiation interaction parameters at photon energies of 356, 511, 662, 1170, 1275, and 1330 keV have been compared with theoretical values estimated using XCOM, EPiXS and Phy-X/PSD. BiOI-rich compositions showed high attenuation efficiency. The study further compared the attenuation parameters calculated using crystal density and pellet density, revealing that the pellet density-based estimations showed closer agreement with experimental values. The results establish a correlation between structural characteristics, density variation, optical properties, and gamma-radiation interaction behaviour in BiOI/SnO2 nanocomposites, demonstrating their potential as promising lead-free shielding materials for medical and industrial radiation protection applications.
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