Abstract: Eu2O3 fillers (Eu2O3-S) is synthesized by homogeneous precipitation method, and a comparative study is conducted with commercial Eu2O3(Eu2O3-C) fillers with irregular morphology and PbO fillers reinforced composite materials. XRD tests show that the synthesized Eu2O3 fillers (Eu2O3-S) are of cubic crystal system, body-centered cubic lattice, Ia3 ?(206) space group. SEM tests show that the synthetic Eu2O3-S fillers have submicron spherical morphologies with uniform particle size, while the commercial Eu2O3-C fillers have micron particles with irregular morphologies. Mechanical tensile tests and DSC tests show that the yield stress and tensile stress of the synthetic Eu2O3-S /B4C/HDPE composite material are 21.3MPa and 21.0MPa respectively, and the melting temperature is 119.7℃, all of which are stronger than those of commercial Eu2O3-C/B4C/HDPE composite material. Neutron and gamma radiation shielding tests show that the submicron sphere Eu2O3-S fillers with uniform particle size have the best dispersion in the HDPE matrix and can enhance the shielding rate of the composite material. The plate with a thickness of 1.5cm has the best neutron shielding rate (43.66%), and its gamma shielding rate is 13.48%, which is close to the comparison composite material with Pb fillers.

Key words: Eu₂O₃; Composite, Neutron; Gamma, Radiation shielding