What materials can X-Rays not pass through?

[bridgey]

I've been researching for a while now but i can't find anything that answers my question.

 

I'd like to know what are the radiopaque materials? That is, which materials can x-rays not pass through?

 

 

Thanks in advance.

[5614]

I don't know but a google search came up with barium sulphate.

[YT2095]

yeah, Barium Sulphate`s a good one, but the original question is still too vague in the respect that there`s no mention of Power levels or Type, such as Hard or Soft X-Rays, one could argue that Lead is another Blocker, but then that`s only partly true also, as it`s efficiency depends upon many other factors.

[5614]

You could also argue that a blackhole is radiopaque

[YT2095]

I`ll bring that up the next time I see a Radiologist for an X-Ray

[swansont]

As YT said, the energy matters, but nothing is actually opaque, really; it's a matter of being more or less transparent. In terms of e.g. taking an x-ray picture, you get contrast so the film is more or less exposed, and materials like lead will be better at shielding, but some fraction of x-rays will pass through, depending on the thickness (it's an exponential function, ^{[math]e^{-\lambda L}[/math]} ).

 

If you want materials that are good at stopping x-rays, you want a large linear attenuation coefficient, ^{[math]\lambda[/math]}

[RyanJ]

I've been researching for a while now but i can't find anything that answers my question.

 

I'd like to know what are the radiopaque materials? That is' date=' which materials can x-rays not pass through?

 

 

Thanks in advance.[/quote']

 

Theoretically anything as long as there is enough of it

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[sunspot]

When I worked in Oak Ridge, our sister plant, the National Lab, had a swimming pool where they put hot/radioactive stuff from their experimental reactor. It was sort of weird walking along the catwalk and seeing the things glowing blue under the water. I believe about 20 ft or so of water is sufficient as an radiation shield including X-rays. This taught me a strategy if there ever was a nuclear incident nearby. If deep water is available, dive as deep as possible.

 

Another good shield is lead. If one gets an X-ray, this provides the family jewels some protection. Berylium is also good.

[swansont]

Another good shield is lead. If one gets an X-ray, this provides the family jewels some protection. Berylium is also good.

 

Berylium? Is this the same Berylium that has an attenuation coefficient of about 0.25/cm at 100 keV (as compared to Pb, with a value of 50/cm)?

[Nevermore]

I think he meant barium.

[jdurg]

Pretty much any heavy, dense metal (or in some cases metal salts) will be good at blocking radiation. Uranium metal is actually VERY good at blocking gamma rays and x-rays, ironically enough.

[YT2095]

I think he meant barium.

 

or perhaps Bismuth? I think I`de trust that alot more out of the "B" letter metals

[ecoli]

about a foot of concrete would work too.

[washim]

I want no about materials which has very low X Ray absorbing property. The material should be transparent like glass. It has to be safe for medical instrument

[swansont]

X-rays are ionizing radiation. You'll want something with a low atomic density and low atomic number to minimize the number of potential targets.

[Brian Klock]

I just thought I'd drop in a possibly interesting note about X-Rays ...

 

... that X-Rays are highly useful in medical applications because they don't pass through all materials equally well.

[J.C.MacSwell]

I want no about materials which has very low X Ray absorbing property. The material should be transparent like glass. It has to be safe for medical instrument

I know that for composites, carbon fibre is preferred over glass fibre in the X-ray range. Quite the opposite of the visible range.

[Bill Angel]

I just thought I'd drop in a possibly interesting note about X-Rays ...

 

... that X-Rays are highly useful in medical applications because they don't pass through all materials equally well.

That's correct, but also causes problems. When the dentists took an XRay of my tooth, they could see inside of the roots just fine, but they could not see inside the upper part of the tooth that was covered by a metal crown.

Also, Doctors and Dentists don't use photographic film any more. The X Rays are captured by solid state sensors.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Bill Angel