New binary and ternary SiO2 composites with Fe2O3 and Co2.74O4 and the evaluation of their γ-radiation shielding properties
Ahmed M. A. El‐Seidy, Mohamed S. El-Okaily, Islam M. Nabil, Amany Mostafa
Abstract
Abstract A new series of binary and ternary nanocomposites contains cobalt oxide or iron/cobalt oxides were manufactured to increase silicon dioxide $$\gamma$$ shielding power. XRD indicated the presence of Co as Co 2.74 O 4 (COD: 1528446) and the presence of iron as Fe 3 O 4 (COD: 9002318 and 9005814). Using Profex, the Rietveld refinements were carried out. The R w , R ex , x 2 , and G of were 4.49, 4.34, 1.07, and 1.03, respectively, indicating good refinement parameters. XPS indicated the presence of Si ( $$\hbox {Si}^{4+}$$ ), Fe (Fe $$_{2}$$ O $$_{3}$$ ) and cobalt ( $$\hbox {Co}^{2+}$$ and $$\hbox {Co}^{3+}$$ ). TEM analysis showed that all metal oxide@SBA-15 solids have characteristic and well-organized SBA-15 structures. The $$\gamma$$ -radiation shielding for the prepared samples were investigated via the Monte-Carlo code (MCN) and Phy-X software. The results confirmed that, adding high concentrations of cobalt-oxide and hematite increases the linear attenuation significantly. The SiCoFe-3 sample, which contains the highest content of cobalt-oxide and hematite, has the best $$\gamma$$ -radiation shielding capability among all the synthesized SiCo/SiCoFe samples.