Evaluation of the Effect of Different Nanoparticles on the Mass Attenuation Coefficient of a Shield in Diagnostic Radiology: A Monte Carlo Study

Purpose: This research aimed to estimate the Mass Attenuation Coefficient (MAC) for the various nanoparticles in diagnostic imaging in order to assess and compare the changes in a bulk state. Materials and Methods: To Using Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) code, nanoparticles were simulated in the target in order to compute the MAC considering the target. The Materials, including Bi, Pb NPs, Pb, W NPs, W, PbO NPs, Bi NPs, Bi2O3 NPs, and WO3 NPs were used in the present study. The gathered data were compared with the theoretical results of the XCOM software for validation. Results: The findings demonstrated that the radioprotective characteristics of nanoparticles in comparison to the bulk materials were better. Among all these nanoparticles, the rate of attenuation of tungsten nanoparticles was higher than that of other nanoparticles. On the other hand, the density and attenuation rate of nanoparticles of PbO, Bi2O3 and WO3 were lower than those of nanoparticles Pb, W, and Bi. Therefore, all of the abovementioned nanoparticles were lightweight and their design was more flexible than that of bulk materials. Conclusion: It was concluded that the use of nanoparticles in the protective materials considerably increased the radioprotective characteristics in the diagnostic radiography energy range.