Open AccessCharacterization of wood-borax composites as alternative neutron shielding material using neutron radiography techniques
Author(s) -
Agus Salim Afrozi,
Auring Rachminisari,
Rohmad Salam,
Asep Nana S
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1436/1/012080
Subject(s) - borax , materials science , composite material , sawdust , neutron , compressive strength , neutron temperature , attenuation coefficient , composite number , neutron imaging , neutron capture , pulp and paper industry , chemistry , raw material , optics , nuclear physics , physics , organic chemistry , engineering
To protect operators of equipment using neutron radiation, an alternative material is needed as a neutron shielding which is lightweight and has a high neutron absorption. One alternative material that can be used is wood dust. In this study pure wood sawdust and 30% borax-wood composites were investigated as alternatives to shielding neutrons. Mixing wood sawdust and borax was done using HEM (High Energy Milling) for 1 hour, then pressed at 2000 Psi using a manual press with variations in thickness of 5 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm and 20 mm. SEM characterization results show, the grain size of wood in pure wood and 30% boraxwood composites is still quite large around 50 μm, the EDS results show no significant difference in wood content and 30% borax-wood composites. XRD characterization results showed no new phases were formed in the 30% borax-wood composite. The results of observations with optical microscopy showed that 30% borax-wood composite which were compressed did not form pores but were not evenly distributed. From the compressive test data, there was a decrease in the compressive ability of 30% borax-wood composites compared to pure wood dust from 226.6 N to 110.4 N. The neutron absorption test results using the Neutron Radiography technique with the film technique showed the addition of 30% borax to sawdust increased the neutron absorption rate by an average of 19.05% in wood to 20.24% in 30% borax-wood composites and increased the attenuation coefficient of 0.36 cm· in pure wood to 0.53 cm 1 in 30% borax-wood composite.