Preparation and physical investigation of CuCo2O4 and CuCo2O4/graphene nanoparticles for gamma ray shielding

Nowadays, the research on environmentally sensitive and non-toxic materials for radiation protection, especially the use of materials that are not part of the lead family, has become a higher priority. In this study, CuCo₂O₄ and CuCo₂O₄/graphene were synthesized using the hydrothermal method. The morphological, structural, and gamma shielding properties of the prepared samples were investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The factors related to radiation shielding such as radiation protection efficiency (RPE), transmission factor (TF), tenth value layer (TVL), mean free path (MFP), half value layer (HVL), mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) and linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) of the samples were calculated. The observed results can help in understanding the radiation shielding performance of copper cobaltite-based samples. For a more complete review, a simulation survey through GEometry ANd Tracking (GEANT4) code was applied to compare the protecting parameters. The LAC for pure and graphene added samples were 2.907 cm⁻¹and 3.890 cm⁻¹, respectively, while HVL, TVL, MFP, and TF showed a decreasing trend. Besides, an increase of MAC and RPE is observed due to presence of graphene. GEANT4 simulations supported these experimental findings. Gamma-ray attenuation rates were 19.61 % and 22.75 %, respectively. These results suggest that the CuCo₂O₄/graphene have strong potential as an effective gamma-ray attenuator.