Boosting the thermal properties and gamma-ray protection performance of epoxy-based fired Iraqi clay: Experimental and theoretical evaluations

The current work aims to fabricate a new lead-free, cheap, epoxy-based Iraqi fired clay for low gamma-ray protection applications. The structural properties of the prepared epoxy-based Iraqi fired clay were examined experimentally. The XRD pattern was used to identify the crystal structure for the fabricated samples. Furthermore, a scanning electron microscope helped show how the clay is spread out in the epoxy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was used to determine the chemical makeup of the samples. The measurements revealed that adding more clay to the composites raises the amounts of Mg, Al, Si, Ca, and Fe, while the amounts of C and Cl go down. Furthermore, increasing the clay content from 0 to 60 wt% leads to an increase in the prepared composites' effective atomic number from 9.51 to 14.28. This enhancement in the effective atomic number enhances the radiation shielding properties of fabricated composites. The linear attenuation coefficient is measured experimentally using the Na (Tl) detector. The measurements depict that the increase in the clay content from 0 to 60 wt% increases the linear attenuation coefficient of the prepared samples from 0.262 ± 0.005 cm⁻¹ to 0.587 ± 0.015 cm⁻¹, respectively, at 59.5 keV. The measured linear attenuation coefficient is confirmed using the Monte Carlo simulation. This increase in the linear attenuation coefficient decreases the half-value thicknesses and thickness equivalent lead of the prepared composites, while the radiation protection efficiency of the prepared composites is enhanced by raising the clay content.