The Role of La2O3 in Enhancement the Radiation Shielding Efficiency of the Tellurite Glasses: Monte-Carlo Simulation and Theoretical Study

Abstract

The radiation shielding competence was examined for a binary glass system xLa2O3 + (1 − x) TeO2 where x = 5, 7, 10, 15, and 20 mol% using MCNP-5 code. The linear attenuation coefficients (LACs) of the glasses were evaluated, and it was found that LT20 glass has the greatest LAC, while LT5 had the least LAC. The transmission factor (TF) of the glasses was evaluated against thicknesses at various selected energies and was observed to greatly decrease with increasing thickness; for example, at 1.332 MeV, the TF of the LT5 glass decreased from 0.76 to 0.25 as the thickness increased from 1 to 5 cm. The equivalent atomic number (Zeq) of the glasses gradually increased with increasing photon energy above 0.1 MeV, with the maximum values observed at around 1 MeV. The buildup factors were determined to evaluate the accumulation of photon flux, and it was found that the maximum values for both can be seen at around 0.8 MeV. This research concluded that LT20 has the greatest potential in radiation shielding applications out of the investigated glasses due to the glass having the most desirable parameters.

Effect of La2O3 on the optical, thermal, structural and radiation shielding properties of TeO2–ZnO–BaO glasses

“…Since these tellurite glasses are heavy and classified as heavy metal oxide, these have found applications as radiation shielding materials replacing toxic lead-based compounds [26][27][28][29]. Computational studies on binary lanthanum-tellurite glasses had shown a higher increase in linear and mass attenuation coefficients, indicating the importance on La 2 O 3 in shielding high energy radiation [30]. This is owing to increase in density and molecular weight of glasses with La 2 O 3 doping.…”

A promising alternative: examining TVS tellurite glass for gamma radiation shielding applications

“…This is due to the extraordinary qualities that TeO 2 glasses possess. Recent studies have demonstrated that TeO 2 glasses have significant shielding capabilities that are either on par with or even better than those afforded by other kinds of glass systems (Almuqrin et al, 2021). The ability to employ telluritebased glasses in a radiation-contaminated environment depends critically on understanding their shielding efficacy and ability to reduce radiation exposure severity (Çelikbilek et al, 2013).…”