Experimental studies on the gamma photons-shielding competence of TeO2–PbO–BaO–Na2O–B2O3 glasses

Abstract

In this work, glass composed of (40 + x) PbO–5 TeO2–15 BaO–(20 − x) Na2O–20 B2O3 (x = 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 mol%) was prepared via melt-quenching and the gamma-shielding competency was studied. The results showed that the density and molecular weight increased from 5.006 to 7.121 (gcm−3) and 146.579 to 178.823 (g) as Na2O was replaced by PbO. The direct and indirect bandgap energies decreased from 3.512 to 3.357 and 2.791 to 2.525 eV as the lead concentration increased from Pb40Na20–Pb60Na0. We employed the Geant4 simulation code for narrow-beam geometry with a mono-energetic photon beam imposed on a glass specimen. The mass attenuation coefficient (µ/ρ) for the fabricated glass was determined using the Geant4 simulation code. The difference between the theoretical values (XCOM) and simulated values (Geant4) was less than 7%, confirming the accuracy of the present results. The µ/ρ values increased quickly with the increasing PbO content at low photon energies, while increasing the energy reduced the increase of the µ/ρ values. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) was also evaluated and the results showed that increasing the density increased the attenuation behavior. The Pb60Na0 sample with the highest density (7.121 g/cm3) had the largest LAC values at all energies (in the range of 0.29–1.69 cm−1). The effective atomic number values of the fabricated samples were in the range of 33–70. Pb60Na0 glass with the lowest half-value layer is a promising candidate for radiation-shielding applications among Pb40Na20–Pb60Na0 glass.