Introduction of Graphene/h-BN Metamaterial as Neutron Radiation Shielding by Implementing Monte Carlo Simulation
Marzieh Hassanpour, Mehdi Hassanpour, Simin Faghihi, Saeedeh Khezripour, Mohammad Reza Rezaie, Parvin Dehghanipour, Mohammad Rashed Iqbal Faruque, Mayeen Uddin Khandaker
Abstract
In this paper, graphene/h-BN metamaterial was investigated as a new neutron radiation shielding (NRS) material by Monte Carlo N-Particle X version (MCNPX) Transport Code. The graphene/h-BN metamaterial are capable of both thermal and fast neutron moderator and neutron absorber process. The constituent phases in graphene/h-BN metamaterial are chosen to be hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and graphene. The introduced target was irradiated by an Am-Be neutron source with an energy spectrum of 100 keV to 15 MeV in a Monte Carlo simulation input file. The resulting current transmission rate (CTR) was investigated by the MCNPX code. Due to concrete's widespread use as a radiation shielding material, the results of this design were also compared with concrete targets. The results show a significant increase in NRS compared to concrete. Therefore, metamaterial with constituent phase's graphene/h-BN can be a suitable alternative to concrete for NRS.