Gamma-ray and charged particles shielding potency of hard/soft spinel ferrite composites

This paper reports the γ-radiation and charged particles shielding potency of a new type of hard/soft spinel ferrite nanocomposites (H/S CoNiGaGd-Zn SFNCs) of the form (Co 0.5 Ni 0.5 Ga 0.01 Gd 0.01 Fe 1.98 O 4 ) x /(ZnFe 2 O 4 ) y ( x : y = 1:0, 1:1, 1:3, and 4:1). These samples were prepared using the modified citrate sol–gel auto combustion method and thoroughly characterized. XRD profiles of the samples showed sharp peaks corresponding to the pure cubic spinel ferrite phases. The densities of the proposed specimens were increased with the increase of ZnFe 2 O 4 contents. Radiation sources like Cs 137 and Ho 166 were used to evaluate the linear attenuation coefficient of the samples and the measured values were compared with the one calculated using XCOM program. The γ-radiation and charged particles shielding capacity of the studied H/S CoNiGaGd-Zn SFNCs were computed theoretically using XCOM and Phy-X programs. In addition, the SRIM program was used to determine the charged particles projected range. The results revealed a significant improvement in the shielding characteristics of the H/S CoNiGaGd-Zn SFNCs with the inclusion of ZnFe 2 O 4 .