An experimental study on gamma ray shielding features of lithium borate glasses doped with dolomite, hematite and goethite minerals

Abstract

In this work, lithium borate (LB) glasses including dolomite, hematite and goethite minerals ((100-x) Li2B4O7-Mineral x = 10, 20, 30, 40 wt %) were produced with melt quenching technique. The densities (ρ, g/cm3) of the prepared glasses were determined with Archimedes method and the molar volumes (Vm, cm3/g) were calculated. XRD measurements were taken to control the amorphous structure of the glasses. To determine the shielding capabilities of the glasses under examination, mass attenuation coefficients (μρ,cm2/g) of mineral doped glasses at 81, 276, 302, 356, 383 keV photons emitted from 3 Ci 133Ba radioactive source have been defined by using HPGe detector. With the results acquired, the shielding parameters; effective atomic number (Zeff) and half value layer (HVL) were calculated experimentally and compared to the theoretical results obtained by using WinXCOM program. LB glasses containing goethite 30, 40% and hematite 40% have larger μ and Zeff and lower HVL values than the other prepared glasses. Furthermore, with Geometric Progression approach (GP-fitting), exposure buildup factor (EBF) values of the glasses were calculated in the 0.015–15 MeV energy range and up to 40 mean free path (mfp) penetration depth. Dolomite added glasses have larger EBF values than hematite and goethite added. But the transparency of dolomitic glass can make it worthwhile. Last of all, Li2B4O7 glasses including hematite and goethite have comparable and good radiation absorption properties.