Experimental investigation for the impacts of Er₂O₃ content on enhancing the physical and radiation shielding capabilities of composites based-epoxy

By employing erbium oxide (Er 2 O 3 ) as fillers, the current study seeks to improve the physical and radiation shielding performance of epoxy composites. Therefore, a series of epoxy-based composites were fabricated according to the chemical formula of (90− x ) epoxy + 10 Eu 2 O 3 + x Er 2 O 3 ; x ≈ 0, 5, 10, and 15 wt%. The impact of Er 2 O 3 fillers on the physical and radiation shielding properties of the prepared composites was investigated experimentally. The change in density of prepared epoxy-based Er 2 O 3 composites was measured according to the Archimedes method. The recorded data confirms an increase in the prepared composites’ density between 1.188 ± 0.018 g/cm 3 and 1.375 ± 0.021 g/cm 3 when the Er 2 O 3 concentration raised throughout a concentration range of 0–15 wt%. The impact of Er 2 O 3 on the gamma-ray shielding performance of epoxy-based composites was evaluated experimentally using the narrow beam transmission method. During the application of the narrow beam transmission method, a 5.08 × 5.08 cm NaI (Tl) crystal and two radioactive sources (Cs-137 and Co-60) were utilized. The measured data showed that the increase in Er 2 O 3 concentrations between 0 wt% and 15 wt% enhances the linear attenuation coefficient of the prepared composites between 0.0959 ± 0.0051 cm −1 and 0.1093 ± 0.0069 cm −1 , respectively, at 0.662 MeV. The investigation shows that the increase in the Er 2 O 3 concentration improves the linear attenuation coefficient by 14.04 %, 11.62 %, and 15.73 % at 0.662 MeV, 1.173 MeV, and 1.332 MeV, respectively.