Using Aloe Vera powder (AV) at varying concentrations - 1, 2, and 3% - polylactic acid/aloe vera (PLA/AV) composite films were prepared using the solvent casting process. All of the composites were exposed to 10, 25, and 40 kGy of electron beam (EB) radiation. It was examined how the thermal and mechanical characteristics of PLA/AV films were affected by electron beam radiation. XRD, FTIR, TGA, and biodegradation (soil burial) were used to analyze the irradiation films' characteristics. The findings showed that doses up to 25 kGy increased the neat PLA's tensile strength (TS). At lower doses up to 10 kGy, the addition of AV raises the TS values (particularly at 2% concentration). It appears adding varying proportions of AV powder enhances the thermal stability of PLA/AV composites. Biodegradability showed that films with AV were the most biodegradable, while those without AV were the least.

A humic acid -gelatin (HA -Gel) hydrogel, a gallic acid-xanthan gum (GA-XG) hydrogel, a HA-Gel/GA-XG hydrogel, and superabsorbent polymer (SAP) of HA-Gel/GA-XG/polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogel were synthesized using electron beam irradiation method. The capability of synthesized hydrogels in loading and controlled release of fulvic acid (FA) was studied. The chemical and physical structure of sorbents was confirmed by various analyses. The effect of irradiation dose on mechanical properties, gel percentage, swelling, and absorbency under load (AUL) of the sorbents was investigated. By changing the hydrogel structures into the SAP form, its swelling capacity was increased from 37 to 320 g/g. Both hybrid hydrogel and SAP were reusable for up to 7 cycles. The maximum fertilizer loading capacities for SAP and hybrid hydrogel were 402.1 and, 175.5 mg g -1 , respectively. In comparison to hydrogels, the SAP showed a slower FA -release performance. Thus, in soil media, 86 % of FA was released in 15 - 20 days from the hybrid hydrogel while with the SAP, 81 % of FA was released in 30 - 35 days. The significant improvement in the growth of fodder corn treated with FA -loaded SAP in the greenhouse media in comparison to the control groups showed the effective performance of the designed SAP, favoring its practical applications.

Neutral Ion Mass spectrometer (NIM) is one of the instruments in the Particle Environmental Package (PEP) designed for the JUICE mission of ESA to the Jupiter system. NIM, equipped with a sensitive MCP ion detector, will conduct detailed measurements of the chemical composition of Jovian icy moons exospheres. To achieve high sensitivity of the instrument, radiation effects due to the high radiation background (high-energy electrons and protons) around Jupiter have to be minimised. We investigate the performance of an Al-Ta-Al composite stack as a potential shielding against high-energy electrons. Experiments were performed at the PiM1 beam line of the High Intensity Proton Accelerator Facilities located at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland. The facility delivers a particle beam containing e(-), mu(-) and pi(-) with momentum from 17.5 to 345 MeV/c (Hajdas et al., 2014). The measurements of the radiation environment generated during the interaction of primary particles with the Al-Ta-Al material were conducted with dedicated beam diagnostic methods and with the NIM MCP detector. In parallel, modelling studies using GEANT4 and GRAS suites were performed to identify products of the interaction and predict ultimate fluxes and particle rates at the MCP detector. Combination of experiment and modelling studies yields detailed characterisation of the radiation fields produced by the interaction of the incident e with the shielding material in the range of the beam momentum from 17.5 to 345 MeV/c. We derived the effective MCP detection efficiency to primary and secondary radiation and effective shielding transmission coefficients to incident high-energy electron beam in the range of applied beam momenta. This study shows that the applied shielding attenuates efficiently high-energy electrons. Nevertheless, owing to nearly linear increase of the bremsstrahlung production rate with incident beam energy, above 130 MeV their detection rates measured by the MCP detector compares to the MCP rate of the incident electron beam. We define key performance parameters for the shielding and show direction of its improvements by introducing additional layer of material to attenuate gamma-rays and reduce the MCP sensitivity to the penetrating radiation. The experiments also verify the predictions by modelling tools used currently for optimisation of shielding against high-energy particles. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.