The fabrication and neutron shielding property of polyphenylene sulfide containing salicylic acid/Gd2O3 composites

A series of neutron absorbing materials with good neutron absorbing capacity, high strength and good thermal property were designed and prepared in this work. First of all, polyphenylene sulfide containing different mole content of salicylic acid (SAPPS) in the main chain was synthesized by nucleophilic substitution polymerization under high pressure. Then the composites with different content of nano Gd 2 O 3 and modified PPS were prepared by melt blending method. The testing results indicated that the copolymers SAPPS were synthesized successfully, there was an interface interaction between nano Gd 2 O 3 and the matrix without the need for surfactants or coupling agents. Additionally, the content of nano Gd 2 O 3 had no obvious influence on the thermal property of the composites. While following with the increase of the content of nano Gd 2 O 3 , the tensile strength of the composites increased firstly and then decreased, when the content of nano Gd 2 O 3 was 10 wt%, the tensile strength of 10%Gd 2 O 3 /5%SAPPS reached the maximum value of 74.9 MPa. The results of neutron shielding testing indicated that the content of nano-particles had a large effect on the neutron shielding rate of composites. The neutron shielding rate of 50%Gd 2 O 3 /5%SAPPS composite was up to 83%. All of these results indicated that the Gd 2 O 3 /5%SAPPS had potential to be applied to the high-temperature resistance and thermal shielding materials in nuclear and aerospace applications.