The Properties of Bi2O3 Additive on Radiation Shielding and Elastic Moduli Properties of TeO2–P2O5 Based Glass System

Abstract

The radiation shielding and elastic moduli properties of (60–x)TeO2–30P2O5–xBi2O3 (x increased from 10–50 mol% in 10 mol% increments) glass series have been discussed. The radiation shielding quantities such as mass attenuation coefficient (µ m), effective atomic numbers (Z eff), half value layer (HVL) and mean free path (MFP) were calculated using Phy–X/PSD program at energies ranging from 1 keV–100 GeV while exposure and energy absorption buildup factors (EBF and EABF) were evaluated using geometric progression (G–P) fitting method at energies ranging 0.015–15 MeV for penetration depths (PD) until 40 mean free path (mfp). In addition, the density and elastic moduli were estimated. The results found that the TPB5 glass sample having the largest content of Bi2O3 possessed the highest density and excellent radiation shielding properties. This reflected that replacing TeO2 with Bi2O3 improved effective radiation shielding. In addition, the MFP for glass series were lower than the hematite-serpentine concrete. It indicated that this glass series are photon shielding better than the hematite-serpentine concrete. Whereas, this sample had the lowest elastic moduli. These results indicated that Bi2O3, a network modifier, has broken glass network bonds and formed non–bridging oxygen (NBOs) which affects the elastic moduli of the glass system.