Examination of the ionizing radiation shielding behavior of the zinc boro-tellurite glasses doped with dysprosium oxide

Abstract

A set of zinc boro-tellurite glasses (xDBTZ) is prepared by the melt-quenching technique. The glasses are investigated to evaluate the shielding effectiveness. The glass stability is proven higher for the glass containing 2% Dy. The 2DBTZ glass owns higher oxygen packing density and lower molar volume of oxygen among the prepared glasses, and the behaviour specifies that the atoms in the glass lattice are aligned to be tightly packed. The structural and mechanical features suggested the applicability of the 2DBTZ glass in radiation-shielding applications. The Monte-Carlo simulation was also applied to evaluate the γ-ray attenuating aptitude for the manufactured zinc boro-tellurite glasses. The obtained data shows that including 2 wt% of Dy2O3 concentration improves the linear attenuation coefficient of the as-prepared zinc boro-tellurite glasses. The linear attenuation coefficient enhancement affected the half values thickness of the manufactured zinc boro-tellurite glasses, where the half values decreased by 32.78%, 22.21% and 21.57% for γ-ray energies of 0.059, 0.551 and 2.506 MeV correspondingly. Additionally, adding the Dy2O3 to the glasses enhances the radiation-protection efficiency accompanied by a reduction in the transmission factor of the fabricated composites. Therefore, the fabricated samples can be used as an alternative lead-free shielding material.