Evaluation of nuclear radiation shielding competence for ternary Ge–Sb–S chalcogenide glasses

Abstract

Chalcogenide glasses are which include germanium, antimony, and sulfur in its structure. The high physical, dielectric, optical, mechanical, and thermal features of the chalcogenide glasses lead to the occasion to evaluate its radiation shielding characteristics. Gamma ray and neutron shielding parameters were evaluated for five chalcogenide glasses doped with CdCl2 according to the formula 60(GeS2)–(40 − x)Sb2S3–xCdCl2; x = 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 mol% glasses. The mass attenuation coefficient MAC for chalcogenide glasses was simulated using Monte Carlo simulation code (MCNP-5) in gamma photon energy between 0.015 and 15 MeV. The obtained results showed that the MAC for all studied glasses decreases with insertions of CdCl2. The highest MAC is obtained for GSC glasses without CdCl2 content and varied between 0.037 and 4.706 cm2 g−1, while the lowest MAC achieved for GSC 40 glasses with (40 mol%) CdCl2 and varied between 0.034 and 44.758 cm2 g−1. After that, the simulated MAC for all chalcogenide glasses is compared with those calculated theoretically using XCOM software. Other pivotal gamma ray shielding competences such as half value layer, mean free path and effective atomic number (Zeff), and exposure buildup factor for the chalcogenide glasses were also evaluated via the μ/ρ. Furthermore, the fast neutron removal cross section (ΣR) was also evaluated for chalcogenide glasses. GSC0 possesses the best removal cross section for fast neutron (ƩR = 0.0695 cm−1) among the present chalcogenide glasses.