Evaluation of X-ray radiation shielding performance of barium sulphate-coated fabrics

The X-ray in the field of medical imaging is an important diagnostic tool, but it has been identified that there are potential radiation risks associated with the X-ray radiation scans. These risks have traditionally been guarded against using lead based shields. Lead has excellent radiation shielding properties, but it is also heavy and a potential health and environmental hazard due to its toxicity. Thus, there have been studies seeking to find an alternative that is as effective and yet counters the other drawbacks. In this paper, preliminary studies were conducted to assess the shielding effect of barium sulphate (BaSO₄) and bismuth oxide (Bi₂O₃) on the coated fabric samples. X-ray transmission resulting from standard lead coated samples, uncoated fabric, BaSO₄, and BaSO₄/Bi₂O₃ coated fabrics was evaluated via measuring the penetration of primary radiation. Different properties such as mass per unit area, material thickness, and surface morphology were examined. All samples were irradiated by X-ray at 80 kVp to measure the amount of transmissions. The X-ray transmission level associated with BaSO₄ ranged from 84.5 % to 70.5 %. However, this level was elevated to 55.6 % when BaSO₄/Bi₂O₃ mixture was applied on the fabric. The theoretical attenuation coefficient values associated with different coating mixtures comprising different weight proportions of BaSO₄, Bi₂O₃, and PVC were determined between 0 MeV and 105 MeV using XCOM code. The XCOM results implied that the X-ray attenuation coefficient among all prepared coatings should be the mixture comprising 13.3 wt% Bi₂O₃/20 wt% BaSO₄/66.7 wt% PVC, which was in agreement with the experimental results obtained from X-ray transmission measurements.