Description
Radiation protection in healthcare settings is critical to ensure the safety of patients and medical personnel exposed to ionizing radiation during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. In this work, a lead-free, environmentally benign tantalum–tungsten (Ta-W) composite coating was successfully deposited onto natural cotton fabric via magnetron plasma sputtering to develop a lightweight, flexible radiation-shielding textile suitable for wearable medical applications. The sputtering process was carried out at a constant power of 190 W and a working pressure of 0.11 mbar, with deposition times ranging from 75 to 150 minutes, to study the influence of coating duration on shielding performance. The structural and compositional properties of the coated fabrics were systematically characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), providing insights into the surface morphology, elemental distribution, chemical interactions and crystalline structure of the deposited layers. Radiation attenuation performance was evaluated using a Geiger-Müller counter for beta radiation and a NaI scintillation detector for gamma radiation. The experimental results show that increasing sputtering duration significantly improves radiation shielding efficiency, attributed to the surface coverage effect of Ta-W nanoparticles. The fabric coated for 150 minutes achieved maximum attenuation efficiencies of approximately 20.47 % for beta radiation and 4.4 % for gamma radiation. This study demonstrates the feasibility of developing flexible, lightweight, and environmentally benign radiation-shielding textiles based on metal-coated polymer fabrics.