Fabrication of Lead Free Borate Glasses Modified by Bismuth Oxide for Gamma Ray Protection Applications

Abstract

In the present work, bismuth borate glass samples with the composition of (99-x) B2O3 + 1Cr2O3 + (x) Bi2O3 (x = 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 wt %) were prepared using the melt quenching technique. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) of the prepared glass samples was measured through a narrow beam technique using a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector. Four point sources were used (241Am, 133Ba, 152Eu, and 137Cs) to measure the MAC for the prepared glasses. The experimental data were compared with the theoretical results obtained from the XCOM, and it was shown that for all samples at all tested energies, the relative deviation between the samples is less than 3%. This finding signifies that the experimental data can adequately be used to evaluate the shielding ability of the glasses. The MAC of the sample with x = 25 wt % was compared with different lead borate glasses and the results indicated that the present sample has high attenuation which is very close to commercial lead borate glasses. We determined the transmission factor (TF), and found that it is small at low energies and increases as the energy increases. The addition of Bi2O3 leads to reduction in the TF values, which improves the shielding performance of the glass system. The half value layer (HVL) of the BCrBi-10 sample was 0.400 cm at 0.595 MeV, 1.619 cm at 0.2447 MeV, and 4.946 cm at 1.4080 MeV. Meanwhile, the HVL of the BCrBi-20 sample is equal to 0.171 and 4.334 cm at 0.0595 and 1.4080 MeV, respectively. The HVL data emphasize that higher energy photons tend to penetrate through the glasses with greater ease than lower energy photons. Furthermore, the fast neutron removable cross section (FNRC) was determined for the present samples and compared with lead borate glass and concrete, and the results showed a remarkable superiority of the bismuth borate glass samples.

The Influence of Bi2O3 Nanoparticle Content on the γ-ray Interaction Parameters of Silicon Rubber

“…the thickness needed to reduce the initial intensity to its tenth value and can be estimated from the following equation [34][35][36]:…”

“…The other radiation attenuation parameters are based on the LAC, such as the Half Value Layer (HVL), which represents the thickness needed to reduce the initial intensity to its half value; the Mean Free Path (MFP), which represents the path of the photon inside the sample without any interactions; and the Tenth Value Layer (TVL), which represents the thickness needed to reduce the initial intensity to its tenth value and can be estimated from the following equation [34][35][36]:…”

Investigation of the Gamma-ray Shielding Performance of CuO-CdO-Bi2O3 Bentonite Ceramics

“…The experimental results were compared with the results obtained from Phy-X software, where the MAC was calculated with a wide range of energies. The LAC is an essential factor for measuring the shielding materials and can be measured or calculated depending on the MAC calculations by the next equation [ 34 ]: …”

Crystal plane engineering of MAPbI₃ in epoxy-based materials for superior gamma-ray shielding performance

“…The μ and μ m values of some commonly used shielding materials are shown in Fig. 3f [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] . As can be seen, the current MAPbI 3 /epoxy composites have superior gamma ray (59.5 keV) shielding ability, as indicated by their large μ and μ m values relative to most of the commonly used shielding materials.…”