Optical borophosphate glass system with excellent properties for radiation shielding applications

Abstract

A new set of borophosphate glass samples: (50-x)P2O5–20B2O3–20CaO–10Na2O–xMoO3, where x = 0–15 mol. % were investigated for their radiation absorbing ability. The mass attenuation coefficient of the glasses were computed through XCOM calculations and photon transmission through the glasses via the FLUKA Monte Carlo code for gamma photons of energies 0.015 – 15 MeV. In addition, the stopping power and range of different charged particles were calculated from the ESTAR, PSTAR, ASTAR free online NIST database and SRIM code. Also, the fast (ΣR) and thermal neutron cross sections were calculated using standard expressions. We found that the photon attenuation ability of the PBCN-M glasses was improved with MoO3 content and the sample of PBCN-M4 is recorded as the best photon attenuator among them. The ΣR was within the range: 0.09285 – 0.09358 cm-1. The (ΣR)PBCN-M2 < (ΣR)PBCN-M4 < (ΣR)PBCN-M1 < (ΣR)PBCN-M3. The PBCN-M3 represented the optimum chemical structure of the glass system for fast neutron removal ability. In contrast to ΣR, σtot systematically increased as the glass density and MoO3 molar concentration increased. Comparing the photon shielding capability of the PBCN-M4 glasses with diverse shielding materials, suggested that investigated glass have huge potential to perform better. However, denser conventional shields showed superior ability to absorb photons compared to PBCN-M4 but the lower density and Pb-free nature of PBCN-M4 makes it more attractive for shielding applications.