Synergistic effect of La2O3 on mass stopping power (MSP)/projected range (PR) and nuclear radiation shielding abilities of silicate glasses

Abstract

Photon and neutron attenuation properties of La2O3 based Li2O-SiO2-La2O3 glass system have been evaluated through MCNPX (2.6.0) Monte Carlo code at some photon energies of 0.256–1.33 MeV. In order to control the accuracy of the data, the estimated MCNPX of mass attenuation coefficients have been compared to those of WinXCOM software. The half value layer (HVL), tenth value layer (TVL) and mean free path (MFP) values of the selected glass system exhibited that the shielding performance of the gamma photons is related to the density of glass, thus, the inclusion of TeO2 to Li2O-SiO2 improves the capacity of the glass system to attenuate more photons. In addition, the effective removal cross-section (ΣR) calculations have been done. Further, Mass sopping power (MSP) and Projected range (PR) are calculated for proton particles (H1) and alpha particles (He+2). It may be deduced that La4 glass among the studied samples may be kept in view as a superior glass in terms of shielding for photon and neutron while La0 glass can be considered as a best shielding material against to alpha and proton particles. The results of this study may be useful for shielding optimization of medical and industrial facilities.