Wearable X-ray Shielding Materials
Dr. Nebahat ARAL
Abstract:
Protection from direct and indirect scattered radiation has a major importance on minimizing the negative effects of radiation on human health by considering the annual dose limits. The personal radiation protection clothing used in medical application areas which are generally aprons formed from polymer sheets with lead content that has several disadvantages: Lead toxicity, high weight problem, and cracking of polymer sheets.
During PhD studies, the idea of developing environmentally friendly x-ray shielding material with the integration of radiopaque powders in polymer coating on textile surface is extended with theoretical modelling and focusing on the required x-ray protection in medical applications. The results of the studies showed that using non-lead radiopaque additives (i.e., tungsten, bismuth, tin, barium sulphate, copper) in a textile coating can be a promising alternative for designing protective garments.
During post-doctoral studies, comparing the properties of the developed lead-free protective fabrics with the commercial products is aimed in terms of radiation protection and weight. The compositions of commercial lead and non-lead X-ray protective materials were investigated by material analysis methods as FTIR-ATR, SEM/EDS, and density measurement to estimate the content of the structures, which were not declared explicitly by the manufacturers. Moreover, Monte Carlo simulations were carried out with the estimated weight ratio of the element amounts and actual densities to compare X-ray attenuation properties.
Biography:
Dr. Nebahat ARAL received her M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Textile Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in 2009 and 2016, respectively. She was awarded TUBITAK Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2017 and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at The Polytechnic University of Catalonia (BarcelonaTECH), Dept. of Material Science and Metallurgical Engineering. She has been involved in various academic and industrial projects. Her research interests include X-ray protection, protective clothing, materials characterization, polymer composites, nano-particles.
Date: 7 February 2020
Time: 16:00
Location: Engineering Building 6th Floor Meeting Room