Comparative Evaluation of Eggshell-Reinforced Epoxy and Vinyl Ester Polymer Composites for Sustainable Radiation Shielding Applications
Keywords:
Epoxy resin, vinyl ester, Egg shell, Polymer, CompositesAbstract
Polymer materials of epoxy resin and vinyl ester with composites varied at different percentage mass of egg shells used as filler were studied for their structural, thermal and shielding properties. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed a difference for the epoxy resin and vinyl ester polymers but with particle arrangement the same for the composites developed from each polymer. There was an increase in the carbon and oxygen content of the developed composites as compared with each polymer from the Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). At a temperature of approximately 300 oC, the epoxy resin and its composites (88% TGA) level of thermal decomposition were more when compared with the vinyl ester and its composite (95% TGA). The vinyl/egg shell composites had higher radiation shielding efficiency values at filler composition of 25% and 35% when compared to the epoxy/egg shell composites at the same composition, but the epoxy/egg shell composites radiation shielding efficiency were higher at 45% filler composition. The epoxy/45% egg shell composite had a linear attenuation value of 0.59 at 100KVp than the vinyl/45% egg shell composite with linear attenuation value of 0.52. The epoxy/egg shell composites with low Mean Free Path (MFP) values are better considered than the vinyl ester composite in both 100KVp and 40KVpradiation exposure.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2026 Patrick Ike, Fabian Aroh

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.