What Materials Are Best for Shielding Alpha, Beta, and Neutron Particles?

[aznsaiyan1029]

What kind of materials are suggested to shield an alpha particle, beta particle, and neutron particle? Or is it energy depended? Will particles just get bounced off / deflected sometimes if a wrong material is used.

 

[daveb]

Alpha particles are stopped by a thin layer of just about anything. Even dead skin cell layers stop most alpha particles. For beta particles, it would depend upon the application and radionuclide - sometimes you want high Z materials and sometimes you want low Z materials. The same goes for neutrons - do you care about activation of the shielding? You also have to consider shielding the capture gammas (2.2MeV for hydrogen).