Mass Attenuation Coefficient Measurements of Some Nanocarbon Allotropes: A New Hope for Better Low Cost Less-Cumbersome Radiation Shielding Over A Wide Energy Range

Abstract

The mass attenuation coefficients of graphene, MWNTs and, SWNTs have been measured for gamma energy range 356 to 1332 keV from the radioactive sources 60Co, 133Ba and 137Cs using a well calibrated gamma ray spectrometer consisting of a 3 ́ ́x 3 ́ ́ NaI(Tl) scintillation detector coupled to a PC based 8K nuclear Multi Channel Analyser (MCA). In an interesting way results showed that MWNTs had the highest values of mass attenuation coefficients indicating their potential use as the best shielding material.