Structural, morphological, and optical properties of sol-gel derived ZnO and ZnO:Cu and its application as a gamma ray attenuator

Mahdi Shaddoust; Amir Reza Khoshhal; Abbas Bagheri Khatibani; Mohammad Hadi Ahmadi

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2025.111812

Structural, morphological, and optical properties of sol-gel derived ZnO and ZnO:Cu and its application as a gamma ray attenuator

Appl Radiat Isot. 2025 Jul:221:111812. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2025.111812. Epub 2025 Mar 31.

Authors

Mahdi Shaddoust¹, Amir Reza Khoshhal², Abbas Bagheri Khatibani³, Mohammad Hadi Ahmadi⁴

Affiliations

¹ Nano Research Lab, Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran.
² Nano Research Lab, Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran; Faculty of Sciences and Modern Technologies, Graduate University of Advanced Technology, Kerman, Iran.
³ Nano Research Lab, Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran; Department of Physics, Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran. Electronic address: bagherikhatibani@iau.ac.ir.
⁴ Department of Physics, Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran.

PMID: 40188778
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2025.111812

Abstract

Pristine and copper doped zinc oxide nanostructures have been afforded by a simple and easy to access sol-gel method. Their common properties were examined through the standard analyzing methods. X-ray diffraction results vouched the hexagonal structure of zinc oxide; even though, the insertion of copper changed the zinc oxide structure to some extent. FESEM achievements illustrated the nanosized quasi-spherical grains and the agglomeration of them. The protection factors against gamma rays, including mean free path (MFP), mass attenuation coefficients (MAC), linear attenuation coefficients (LAC), transmission Factor (TF), tenth value layer (TVL), half value layer (HVL) and radiation protection efficiency (RPE) were calculated. According to these factors, it can be concluded that the use of ZnO, and ZnO-Cu (10 % and 20 %) as a shielding for gamma ray can be valuable. For a more complete review, a simulation survey through GEometry ANd Tracking (GEANT4) code was applied to compare the protecting parameters.

Keywords: Dopant; Nanostructure; Optical properties; Simulation; Sol-gel; X-ray diffraction (XRD).