Experimental comparison of thermal neutron absorption cross section in nano and micro particles

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Abstract

The neutron collision cross-section is important in neutron use for a specific job, such as neutron therapy or even in nuclear reactors. In calculating computational codes such as MCNP, only information from the neutron-to-mass collision information contained in the computational code library is used, in the case of nanoscale particles in contrast to the mass of materials and / or particulate matter on a micro scale, they have better properties and can even show a different neutron collision cross section in some cases. In this study, the amount of thermal neutron absorption in the epoxy composite of microparticle boron nitride (BN), and epoxy composite of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanoparticles with a particle size of 80 nm and a spacing of 20 nm were compared. The composites are made from a solvent processing method, in which the epoxy solution is mixed with a micro or nanoparticle powder with the use of an ultrasonic device and ultimately dissolved in the mold. Two groups of samples from nanoscale and micro-particles with different weight percentages of 5% and 10% have been designed and constructed. BF3 detector was also used to detect thermal neutrons. The results show the difference between the thermal neutron absorption cross section in the boron nitride microparticle composite and hexagonal boron nitride nanoparticle composite. While MCNP calculations yield only one data set, that there is no difference in the simulation of microparticles or nanoparticles. The results of the experiments and the data obtained indicate that the absorption of thermal neutrons in composites with hexagonal nano-nitride particles is better than composite with boron nitride micro particles.

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