Radiation shielding polymer composites: Ray-interaction mechanism, structural design, manufacture and biomedical applications

Nuclear technology has expanded from the original weapon of war to all aspects of social development, finding wide applications in various industries such as medical diagnostics, nuclear power plants and military. Although it brings infinite convenience to industrial and medical fields, the health hazards of nuclear radiation have always troubled the professionals. It has been a long-standing challenge to fabricate lightweight shielding composites with high shielding efficiency. Compared with traditional methods, recently, the new hybrid nanoparticles, orientation stack and controllable periodic distribution of fillers as well as spatially confined composites have aroused great interest of researchers. In this review, the newly emerged manufacturing and evaluation strategies, as well as recent advances on X-ray, γ-ray, and neutron shielding polymer composites are explored. Notably, the focus lies on the biomedical applications of radiation shielding polymer composites and novel polymer drugs for in vivo radioprotection. Additionally, a promising direction is highlighted for the comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of radiation shielding materials, considering both energy attenuation ability and radiation dose accumulation simultaneously. Topics regarding ray-interaction mechanism, radiation injury, structural design, manufacturing strategy and biomedical applications are also discussed in detail.