Radiation shielding properties of Nd_0.6Sr_0.4Mn_1−yNi_yO₃ substitute with different concentrations of nickle

In this work, we investigate the effect of Ni concentration on several shielding properties of Nd_0.6Sr_0.4Mn_1−yNi_yO₃ (0.00 ≤ y ≤ 0.20) perovskite ceramic for possible use as radiation shielding materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that these ceramics have the orthorhombic structure with group space Pnma over a wide range of Ni-substitutions. Moreover, the analysis showed a nearly linear decrease in the lattice parameters and the unit cell volume (V) causing a gradual increase in the packing density with increasing Ni concentration. The shielding features for photons, neutrons, and protons of all ceramic samples were assessed. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) was computed at 0.1, 0.6, 1.25, 5 and 15 MeV by utilizing (MCNP) (version 5.0); the results were compared with the corresponding values obtained using Phy-X and XCOM program. The results obtained showed slight enhancement with increasing Ni contents. The substitution of Ni leads to progressive enhancement in effective removal cross-section of fast neutron (∑_R) values. Whereas the values of Mass Stopping Power (MSP) and projected range for the protons showed a gradual reduction with increasing Ni concentration. These findings suggest that the current ceramic samples can be useful as radiation shielding materials.