design and fabrication of high density borated polyethylene nanocomposites as a neutron shield

Background: polyethylene composites including boron can be used as an effective neutron shield. our investigation focuses on manufacturing borated polyethylene nano-composite. the purpose of this study is to design a radiation shield for use in both neutron and gamma fields. materials and methods: borated polyethylene shields containing 2%, and 5% weight percentage of boron nano-particles were constructed and their neutron attenuation was compared with pure polyethylene. polycarbonate films were used to find the attenuation of am-be neutrons after passing the shields. mechanical properties of the shields were finally compared. results: mean (± sd) number of α tracks induced by neutrons passing through the shields, were found to be 1.0488×10^3±128.98, 289.56±10^3×1.1972 and 1.5340×10^3±206.52 for polyethylene with 5% by weight, polyethylene with 2% by weight boron nano-particles, and pure polyethylene, respectively. the neutron spectrum after each shield was also obtained by mcnp4c monte carlo simulations. on the other hand, borated polyethylene nano-composites showed higher tensile strength compared to that of pure polyethylene. attenuation of neutrons measured in experiments and the result of mcnp simulation were in good agreement. conclusion: a statistically significant difference was found between neutron attenuation by borated polyethylene nanocomposite made of 5% by weight boron and pure polyethylene. however, the difference between borated polyethylene nano-composite with 5% weight and 2% wt boron was not statistically significant.