An innovative material protecting against X-Rays !

The shielding equipment for the operating personal and patient is mainly based on lead materials, which must be worn to be protected from the harmful effects of scattering x-ray radiation during radiological operations. On the other hand, the high level toxicity of lead is a major problem of lead based shielding equipment, which motives the recent studies to focus on designing non-lead compositions. Further-more, the formation of cracks and holes on lead sheets in shielding equipment (e.g. apron) is another concern due to bending and incorrect hanging after use, which decreases the protection level dramatically and makes the equipment unusable. The recent studies about lead free shielding materials have focused on developing processes that incorporate radiopaque powders into polymer sheets with sufficient particle content for effective shielding. Heavy metal elements (high Z materials) such as tungsten and composites of this material have been traditionally used for protection against x-rays or y rays because of its higher mass density. Low toxic character makes tungsten a convenient candidate for lead free shielding materials. By taking the current developments into account, a flexible and lead free coated textile which can be utilized as protective clothing against x-rays, by using relevant conventional textile technologies, has been developed by a research team from the Departments of “Textile Engineering” and “Metallurgical and Materials Engineering”, Istanbul Technical University (ITU). With this innovative material, the researchers F. B. Nergis, İ. Duman, N. A. Yılmaz and C. Candan received TPE 2016/16253 patent from Turkish Patent Institute, and have currently started to work in cooperation with a textile company operating in Turkey to commercialize the product.