Experimental study of radiation shielding performance of PbO2-BaO-CaO-B2O3-Y2O3 glass systems

TL;DR

This study investigates new glass materials for shielding against ionizing radiation and confirms their effectiveness through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new PbO2-BaO-CaO-B2O3-Y2O3 glass system with promising radiation shielding properties.

Findings

The experimental GMAC values align well with Phys-x and Geant4 simulations.

PBCBY-4 samples show the best potential for radiation shielding applications.

Computed parameters like GLAC, GHVL, and GMFP support the shielding effectiveness of the glasses.

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to prepare glass samples with the chemical formula xPbO2-23BaO-10CaO-(65-x)B2O3-2Y2O3 (x = 10, 13, 16 and 19 mol%) using the usual melt quenching technique. These glasses are intended to be used as shielding materials designed to protect against ionizing radiation. Following the experimental measurement of the mass attenuation coefficient (GMAC), which was done to explore the photon shielding capabilities of the prepared samples. The findings were then compared with the values that were estimated from the Phys-x database and simulated using Geant4 code. The experimental findings that were obtained demonstrated a satisfactory connection with the data that was obtained from both Phy-x and Geant4. Based on the observed GMAC, other radiation shielding characteristics were computed for each of the glass that were investigated. These parameters included the linear attenuation coefficient (GLAC), the half-value layer (GHVL), and the mean free path (GMFP). Considering the data presented here, it seems that PBCBY-4 samples have the potential to be advantageous for use in shielding applications against ionizing radiation.

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