Development of fluorine-intercalated biochar material for radiation shielding

Biochar is a sustainable, carbon rich material that can be utilized for several applications including ionizing radiation protection. In this work, a high electron dense fluorine-doped biochar-based carbon material was developed by treating biochar with fluorine-based catalysts. Its application as a composite additive created several radiation protection materials was explored and compared to industry standards. It was found that the biochar composites were able to compete with the industry standards in both alpha radiation and gamma radiation, showing no significant difference between the materials and industry standards (p-value >.99), effectively performing as well as the industry standards. Lead was the most effective material at blocking beta radiation due to its high area density (about 1200 mg/cm²), but the biochar composites were able to reduce beta radiation by over 80 % in some composites, performing exceptionally well relative to their lower area densities (less than 200 mg/cm²). In general, the results indicated that the newly developed biochar composite materials have excellent shielding performance and can be used as an effective replacement for the industry standards ranging from lead to concrete.