Fabrication and characterization of phosphotungstic acid - Copper oxide nanoparticles - Plastic waste nanocomposites for enhanced radiation-shielding

A novel (R-HDPE/CuO-NP-PTA) nanocomposite was designed based on doping recycled high-density polyethylene (R-HDPE) with phosphotungstic acid (PTA) and copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs). It was prepared and investigated for the ability to shield γ-rays. The composite samples were fabricated using the compression molding technique and their characteristics were identified using the Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). The assembled nanocomposites were found to be highly protective from γ-rays due to the presence of high-density materials, such as phosphotungstic acid and copper oxide nanoparticles. The γ-rays attenuation coefficients were measured as a function of the percentage of PTA and CuO NPs using several γ-ray energies with point sources; 356 keV from 133Ba, 662 keV from 137Cs, 1173 and 1332 keV from 60Co. When comparing between the addition of phototungstic acid (PTA) and that of CuO NPs to R-HDPE, it was found that PTA increased the electron density (Nel), mass attenuation coefficient (μm), and effective atomic number (Zeff) of the prepared composites more than CuO NPs. The theoretical values of the mass attenuation coefficient were calculated using the XCOM program.