Investigation of Radiation Shielding Properties of Pure Iron and CopperCarbon-Doped Iron Material with GEANT4

Pure iron and a Fe-based alloy containing 96 wt.% Fe, 3 wt.% Cu, and 1 wt.% C (hereafter coded as Fe3Cu1C) was fabricated via conventional powder metallurgy. The gamma radiation shielding quantities (linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Zeff), and radiation protection efficiency (RPE)) of pure Fe and Fe3Cu1C were investigated with the Geant4 simulation toolkit within the energy range between 0.04 MeV and 6 MeV. The MAC results were also compared with the XCOM theoretical program. The maximum RPE values were observed at the low energy region between 0.04 and 0.1 MeV, with values of 99.99% (0.04 MeV), 99.63% (0.05 MeV), 96.83% (0.06 MeV), 81.80% (0.08 MeV), and 65.59% (0.10 MeV) for Fe, while 99.99% (0.04 MeV), 99.55% (0.05 MeV), 96.42% (0.06 MeV), 80.68% (0.08 MeV), and 64.26% (0.10 MeV) for Fe3Cu1C. It can be deduced that the results obtained from the present investigation of the Fe3Cu1C material can be used for gamma radiation shielding, especially at low energies.