Exploring Gamma Radiation Shielding: the Role of BaO in Borosilicate Glasses

Abstract

The gamma ray shielding characteristics of different borosilicate glasses are examined in this work. Four glasses with a composition of 60B₂O₃–5Na₂O–5PbO–(30-x)SiO₂–xBaO, (x = 5, 10, 15, and 20 mol%) were created using the conventional melt quenching technique followed by an annealing step. Linear attenuation coefficient, LAC, values have been determined using HPGe semi-conductor detector. These values were compared with calculated values estimated from Phy-X software and a good matching was observed. The samples were irradiated using the point sources viz., Am²⁴¹ (0.0595 MeV), Cs¹³⁷ (0.6617 MeV) and Co⁶⁰ (1.173 and 1.330 MeV). The LAC data were further utilized in computations of other radiological parameters that are half value layer (HVL) and Tenth value layer (TVL). Furthermore, radiation shielding efficiency (RSE) of the prepared glass materials has been evaluated. The sample 10S20B exhibits higher values of LAC than the others because it has the largest density and weight fraction of elements with higher atomic numbers. The significance of the atomic number and density parameters-higher atomic number and density imply greater probability of interaction, leading to better attenuation.