Volcanic Rock Reinforced Epoxy Composites for Gamma Ray Shielding

In the present study, gamma ray shielding capability of epoxy resin polymer matrix was tried to enhance with three volcanic rock powders collected from different regions of Van, Turkey. The chemical contents of the volcanic rocks were determined by X-ray Fluorescence spectroscopy. The novel epoxy/volcanic rock composites were prepared with different volcanic rock contents varying from 0 % wt. to 40% wt. The gamma ray shielding performances of the samples were measured experimentally by NaI(Tl) detector for the photons with of 81 keV and 356 keV energies emitted from Ba-133 point radioactive source. The abilities of the samples to shield gamma radiation were evaluated in terms their mass attenuation coefficient, half layer value thickness and mean free path distance. It was determined that the low cost epoxy/volcanic rock composites have a promising potential to be utilized as a radiation shielding medium for the gamma rays. In particular, among all volcanic rock additives the volcanic rock additive having the highest hematite content gained the best gamma ray shielding ability to pure epoxy for both photon energies