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Development of green silicone rubber/waste sludge composites with Bi2O3 extracted from olive leaves for radiation shielding application

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: New fixable composite materials were developed based on silicone rubber reinforced with brine sludge as the main filler, and enhanced with bismuth oxide (Bi 2 O 3 ) prepared from olive leaves as a natural and sustainable resource. For clarity, the samples are coded from SBB0 to SBB5, since (SBB) refers to Silicone Rubber + Brine Sludge + Bi 2 O 3 , starting with the reference sample (SBB0) without bismuth and going up to (SBB5) with the highest content (35% wt). The shielding properties of these composites were evaluated by measuring the attenuation coefficients such as Linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) and radiation shielding efficiency (RSE%) using photons from a wide range of energies, including low-energy X-rays (15–50 keV) as well as gamma rays ( 241 Am at 59.5 keV, 133 Ba at 81 and 356 keV, and 137 Cs at 661.7 keV). The results showed that increasing the Bi 2 O 3 content significantly improved the performance of the samples, with SBB4 and SBB5 achieving shielding efficiencies of nearly 100% against X-rays up to 50 keV and over 95% against low-energy gamma rays at only 1 cm thick. This study also showed that increasing the thickness to 5 cm increased the efficiency at high energies, with the SBB5 efficiency reaching approximately 57% at 661.7 keV, compared to less than 10% for the reference sample (SBB0) with a thickness of 1 cm. These results demonstrate that these new composites, made from recycled and environmentally friendly materials, are good and safe compounds for radiation shielding applications in the medical and industrial fields.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-26822-3
Language: English
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,690
OpenAlex ID: W7117158587
FWCI: 0.848
Cites: 34
Cited by: 4
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