Influence of sodium oxide substitution on structural and gamma-ray radiation shielding properties of sodium borosilicate glass

In this paper, borosilicate glasses with varying concentrations of sodium oxide were synthesized using the melt-quenching method. The amorphous nature of the glasses under investigation, with a composition of (20 + x)Na₂O-(60-x)B₂O₃–20SiO₂ (where x = 0, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 20 mol%), was confirmed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was employed to analyze the glasses and revealed an increase in the concentration of non-bridging oxygen atoms (NBO) with increasing amounts of Na₂O. The N₄ parameter, which represents the fraction of NBOs, was calculated and found to decrease from 74% to 52% as the concentration of Na₂O increased. The density of the glasses increased from 2.391 g/cm₃ to 2.744 g/cm³ when B₂O₃ was replaced with Na₂O, while the molar volume decreased from 27.68 cm³/mol to 23.56 cm³/mol. Theoretically, theoretical calculations were performed using newly developed computer software called Phys-PSD to assess their shielding properties, including attenuation coefficients, half value layer, and buildup factors. The calculations were conducted in the energy range of 0.015–15 MeV. The results indicated that the synthesized glasses exhibited promising potential as radiation shields.