Simulation of sodium diborate glass containing lead and cadmium oxides for radiation shielding applications

Abstract

Sodium diborate glasses containing cadmium and lead oxides were fabricated by the melt annealing technique. Lead oxide was introduced at the expense of cadmium oxide to enhance its elastic and shielding properties. The density of the lead-free glass increased from 2.137 g/cm3 to 3.330 g/cm3 after replacing cadmium oxide with lead oxide. The density values were used to investigate the elastic properties of glass using the MakishimaMackenzie model. In addition, the Phy-X/PSD code was used to simulate the shielding properties of such glasses at different photon energies ranging from 0.005 to 15 MeV.