Synthesis, physical and nuclear shielding properties of novel Pb–Al alloys

The synthesis of alloys doped with a heavy element is proven to be a successful strategy to boost the shielding ability against ionizing radiation. In this paper, four compositions of Al-alloys doped with different weights of Pb are synthesised and studied for their physical features and nuclear radiation shielding characteristics. The produced samples are encoded as PbAl-1, PbAl-2, PbAl-3, and PbAl-4 for Pb content of 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%, respectively. The gamma shielding characteristics of the produced alloys are investigated via Monte Carlo technique, XCOM theory, and gamma transmission experiment. Moreover, we studied the ability of the produced alloys to stop or attenuate the charged particles and neutrons beam. Finally, the radiation shielding ability of our produced alloys is compared with that of standard and commercial ones. Generally, the PbAl-4 alloy is found to be the best shield possessing the lowest MFP values among the other shielding materials in the whole selected energy region. As a result, these novel alloys show promising features to be used in a range of potential applications available in various medical and nuclear sites.