Developing radiation shielding materials is a critical phenomenon for protecting people and the environment with the increment in usage of nuclear technology in today's world. With this sense, PbO/colemanite-filled rigid polyurethane foams were fabricated by one-shut free rise method, and their performances were investigated via the advanced characterization techniques such as ATR-FTIR, SEM-EDS, TGA as well as thermal conductivity, universal mechanical and radiation shielding tests. The characteristic properties of the samples were evaluated in detail depending on the variation in the filler contents. The ATR-FTIR analysis illustrated that RPUF matrices exhibited good compatibility with the fillers by forming the secondary chemical bonds. Furthermore, SEM analysis revealed that the samples with low PbO/colemanite fillers exhibited fairly uniform and regular cellular morphology with anisotropic elliptical apparition thanks to synergetic catalytic effect of the filler particles, whereas, at high content, some local distortions with slightly chaotic appearance were observed accompanied by viewing the little ruptures and bursts in cell face and collapsed in cell plateau borders. TGA measurement indicated that the inclusion of the fillers into RPUF got worse the samples with comparison of neat RPUF due to the reduction in crosslinking density of the foam. Remarkable improvement (about 25 %) was also obtained in thermal insulation performance at the foam composites containing the fillers due to highly augmentation in number of closed cells and presence of more immobile CO2 gas inside the cells. Furthermore, high inclusion of the fillers in RPUF matrix improved compressive strength of the foams by nearly 15 % by enhancing the bending moment and rigidity of RPUF matrices via contributing to the overall stress dispersion. According to linear and mass attenuation coefficients results, the foam composites displayed excellent X-ray radiation shielding performance with increasing of PbO/colemanite content thanks to the density increment and presence of the atoms with high atomic number. Furthermore, at low photon energy levels, better shielding against X-ray radiation was obtained, while vice versa at high energy levels.

中文翻译：

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PbO 和钙镁石填料的协同效应显著提高了硬质聚氨酯泡沫复合材料的辐射屏蔽效率、隔热性能和抗压强度


随着当今世界核技术使用量的增加，开发辐射屏蔽材料是保护人类和环境的关键现象。从这个意义上说，通过单关自由上升法制备了 PbO/colemanite 填充的硬质聚氨酯泡沫，并通过先进的表征技术（如 ATR-FTIR、SEM-EDS、TGA）以及热导率、通用机械和辐射屏蔽测试研究了它们的性能。根据填料含量的变化详细评估样品的特性。ATR-FTIR 分析表明，RPUF 基质通过形成次级化学键表现出与填料的良好相容性。此外，SEM 分析表明，由于填料颗粒的协同催化作用，具有低 PbO/锔铁矿填料的样品表现出相当均匀和规则的细胞形态，具有各向异性的椭圆幻影，而在高含量下，观察到一些局部扭曲，外观略显混乱，并伴有细胞表面的小破裂和爆裂，并在细胞平台边界坍塌。TGA 测量表明，由于泡沫交联密度降低，与纯 RPUF 相比，填料加入 RPUF 的情况比样品更差。由于闭孔数量的高度增加和泡孔内存在更多固定的 CO2 气体，含有填料的泡沫复合材料的隔热性能也得到了显着改善（约 25%）。 此外，RPUF 基体中填料的高含量通过促进整体应力分散来提高 RPUF 基体的弯矩和刚度，将泡沫的抗压强度提高了近 15%。根据线性和质量衰减系数结果，由于密度增加和高原子序数原子的存在，泡沫复合材料随着 PbO/colemanite 含量的增加而表现出优异的 X 射线辐射屏蔽性能。此外，在低光子能级下，可以更好地屏蔽 X 射线辐射，而在高能级下则相反。