Radiation Shielding Properties of $Nd_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Mn_{1-y}Ni_{y}O_{3}$ Substitute with Different Concentrations of Nickle

TL;DR

This study examines how varying nickel concentrations in Nd0.6Sr0.4Mn1-yNiyO3 ceramics affect their radiation shielding properties, revealing potential for use as effective shielding materials against photons, neutrons, and protons.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the influence of Ni substitution on the structural and shielding properties of Nd0.6Sr0.4MnO3 ceramics, with comprehensive analysis using multiple computational methods.

Findings

Mass attenuation coefficient slightly increases with Ni content.

Effective removal cross-section for fast neutrons improves with Ni substitution.

Proton stopping power and projected range decrease as Ni concentration rises.

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the effect of Ni concentration on several shielding properties of $Nd_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Mn_{1-y}Ni_{y}O_{3}$ (0.00 $\leq$ y $\leq$ 0.20) perovskite ceramic for possible use as radiation shielding materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that these ceramics have the orthorhombic structure with group space Pnma over a wide range of Ni-substitutions. Moreover, the analysis showed a nearly linear decrease in the lattice parameters and the unit cell volume (V) causing a gradual increase in the packing density with increasing Ni concentration. The shielding features for photons, neutrons, and protons of all ceramic samples were assessed. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) was computed at 0.1, 0.6, 1.25, 5 and 15 MeV by utilizing (MCNP) (version 5.0); the results were compared with the corresponding values obtained using Phy-X and XCOM program. The results obtained showed slight enhancement with increasing Ni contents. The substitution of Ni leads to progressive enhancement in effective removal cross-section of fast neutron (${\Sigma}$R) values. Whereas the values of Mass Stopping Power (MSP) and projected range for the protons showed a gradual reduction with increasing Ni concentration. These findings suggest that the current ceramic samples can be useful as radiation shielding materials.