Investigations on borate glasses within SBC-Bx system for gamma-ray shielding applications

Abstract

This paper examines gamma-ray shielding properties of SBC-Bx glass system with the chemical composition of 40SiO2–10B2O3–xBaO–(45-x)CaO– yZnO– zMgO (where x = 0, 10, 20, 30, and 35 mol% and y = z = 6 mol%). Mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) which is an essential parameter to study gamma-ray shielding properties was obtained in the photon energy range of 0.015–15 MeV using PHITS Monte Carlo code for the proposed glasses. The obtained results were compared with those calculated by WinXCOM program. Both the values of PHITS code and WinXCOM program were observed in very good agreement. The μ/ρ values were then used to derive mean free path (MFP), electron density (Neff), effective atomic number (Zeff), and half value layer (HVL) for all the glasses involved. Additionally, G-P method was employed to estimate exposure buildup factor (EBF) for each glass in the energy range of 0.015–15 MeV up to penetration depths of 40 mfp. The results reveal that gamma-ray shielding effectiveness of the SBC-Bx glasses evolves with increasing BaO content in the glass sample. Such that SBC-B35 glass has superior shielding capacity against gamma-rays among the studied glasses. Gamma-ray shielding properties of SBC-B35 glass were compared with different conventional shielding materials, commercial glasses, and newly developed HMO glasse. Therefore, the investigated glasses have potential uses in gamma shielding applications.

Keywords

• Gamma shielding
• Borate glass
• PHITS code
• XCOM