Structural, magnetic and gamma-ray shielding features of cerium doped Mg₂FeTiO₆ double perovskite

The Mg₂FeTi_1-xCe_xO₆ [x=(0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10)%] ceramics with different Ce concentrations have been prepared by solid-state technique. That compounds were doped with cerium dioxide (CeO₂) to develop new material for gamma radiation shielding. The prepared nanomaterials were analyzed to investigate their structural and optical properties by XRD, FTIR, SEM, magnetic properties, and UV techniques. It was determined by the XRPD method that the atomic and molecular structures of Ce-doped compounds were in the tetragonal crystal system and crystallized in the P4/mmm (No: 123) space group. The refinement parameters of the compound Ce doped x = 8% were gof 2.4 and R_f 0.82. The effect of the Ce doping on the magnetization was measured in the magnetic field ranging at ±10 kOe for two temperatures (300 and 10 K) and showed that its Saturation Magnetization (Ms) was increased with the doping increase from 6.2 to 8.1 and from 14.7 to 18.7 for the temperatures 300 and 10 K, respectively. Various radiation shielding parameters for gamma-rays, neutron, and proton were evaluated using Phy-X and SRIM softwares. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) increases gradually with adding CeO₂ to Mg₂FeTiO₆ from 54.290 to 92.032 cm⁻¹ at 0.015 MeV. Also, fast neutron removal cross-section (Σ_R) rises from 0.077 to 0.115 cm-1 for x = 0 and x = 10%. While the sample x = 10% shows the lowest projectile range for protons. This sample considers the best sample to stop protons. The Analysis demonstrates that the sample with x = 10% shows the highest gamma, proton, and neutron shielding properties nominated it to use in radiation shielding field.