Gamma shielding performance of B2O3/BaO-based glassy system: Synthesis and simulation study

In this paper, the synthesis and gamma-radiation shielding attributes of xMgO-(30-x)BaO-69.5B2O3-0.5Fe2O3 glasses are reported. The aim is to ascertain the optimum chemical structure of the glass system for gamma radiation shielding applications and dosimetry. The simple melt and quench method was adopted for the synthesis of the xMgO-(30-x)BaO-69.5B2O3-0.5Fe2O3 glasses, where for x = 0, 5, 10, 12, and 15 mol% represented MBBFe-0, MBBFe-1, MBBFe-2, MBBFe-3, and MBBFe-4, respectively. The mass attenuation coefficients mu/ p of the glasses were evaluated using the XCOM and FLUKA simulations for the photon energy range of 15 keV-15 MeV. The differences between the values of mu/ p evaluated with FLUKA and XCOM were within 0.96%. The mass attenuation coefficients of MBBFe-0, MBBFe-1, MBBFe-2, MBBFe-3, and MBBFe-4 ranged from 0.0288 to 28.6205 cm2/g, 0.0279-25.6462 cm2/g, 0.0268-22.2712 cm2/g, 0.0260-20.4073 cm2/g and 0.0251-18.4086 cm2/g, respectively. The corresponding values of the half-value layer at 15 MeV are 7.06 cm, 7.64 cm, 8.25 cm, 8.70 cm, and 9.53 cm for MBBFe-0, MBBFe-1, MBBFe-2, MBBFe-3, and MBBFe-4, respectively. The specific gamma constant values of MBBFe-X glasses are in the range 11.289-264.417 Rm2/Cihr, 10.871-236.716 Rm2/ Cihr, 10.386-205.282 Rm2/Cihr, 9.931-187.921 Rm2/Cihr and 9.444-175.515 Rm2/Cihr for MBBFe-0, MBBFe1, MBBFe-2, MBBFe-3, and MBBFe-4, respectively. The substitution of BaO with MgO therefore, depreciated the gamma shielding efficacy, photon energy absorption abilities, and interaction per unit mass of the MBBFe-X glasses. This study concludes that MBBFe-0 is the best gamma absorber among the studied glasses and has the potential to be a good gamma-radiation shield with an efficiency that supersedes many traditional and modern shielding materials such as concrete, metal alloys, polymers, rocks, commercial glass shields, and other shielding glasses.