Fabrication, characterization, and gamma-ray shielding performance for the lead-based Iraqi white silicate glasses: A closer examination

Abstract

A novel lead-based silicate glass was manufactured throughout the Iraqi white sand rich with silica. The collected sand was separated into different grain sizes, and then the grain size between 200 and 615 µm was used in glass manufacturing. The clean Iraqi sand was other metal oxides as well as a concentration of 35 wt% from the PbO compounds. The mixture was transferred into an aluminum crucible placed in an electric muffle under a high temperature that reaches 1580 °C. The obtained molten was molded at room temperature and then annealed under an annealing temperature of 509 °C. Moreover, XRD was used to confirm the amorphous phase for the fabricated lead-based Iraqi sand. The fabricated lead-based Iraqi silica glass's density was measured using the MH-300A densimeter as well as dispersive energy X-ray spectrometry was utilized to measure the chemical composition and the IRF-454B2M refractometer was used to measure the refractive index for the fabricated lead-based silica glass. Moreover, the Monte Carlo simulation was applied in order to investigate the radiation shielding properties for the fabricated lead-based Iraqi sand in the gamma-ray energy interval between 0.015 and 15 MeV, including the experimental energies of 0.662, 1.173, and 1.332 MeV emitted Cs-137 and Co-60. At 0.662 MeV, the linear attenuation coefficient of the fabricated glass sample reaches 0.266 cm−1 while it is 0.165 cm−1 at 1.25 MeV. The theoretical Phy-X/PSD program also was utilized to report the buildup factors for the fabricated glasses.