Using iron concentrate in Liaoning Province, China, to prepare material for X-Ray shielding

Shielding materials are necessary to protect humans from harmful X-rays that are widely used, especially with low cost and efficient materials. As the present utilization method for iron concentrate may harm the environment, cleaner production methods would be useful. In this paper, a cleaner production method was proposed for iron concentrate in the Liaoning province of China to prepare shielding material for X-rays. The theoretical shielding parameter was calculated using the WinXcom program. X-ray shielding effectiveness was measured at 60–250 kVp using an X-ray machine. The results demonstrate that the mass attenuation coefficients of iron concentrate are lower than PbO but higher than the epoxy resin matrix. Photoelectric absorption, coherent scattering, and incoherent scattering are the main methods for shielding X-rays. The shielding percentage increases as the thickness of the prepared shielding composite increases and decreases with the increase in the X-ray tube voltage. The shielding percentage is more than 76% at 60–250 kVp at a composite thickness of 1.5 cm. The effect of the addition of PbO filler to the matrix material was also analyzed. The shielding percentage of the composite increased rapidly with PbO addition but decreased with the increase in the X-ray tube voltages. The effect of the density also demonstrates that the addition of PbO will significantly improve the shielding performance. The shielding percentage of composites with PbO was more than 90％ at 60–250 kVp. Moreover, the shielding effectiveness of all prepared composites was superior to some shielding concretes. Iron concentrate is potentially low cost and efficient alternative filler for X-ray shielding.