Effect of ZnO particle size on the radiation shielding efficiency of B2O3–BaO–ZnO glass system

This study analyzes the ZnO particle size’s effect on glass samples’ radiation shielding ability. Four glass samples with differing micro and nanoparticle ZnO content were investigated at four energies, 0.060, 0.662, 1.173, and 1.333 MeV. The investigated glasses are a B2O3–BaO–ZnO glass system and are composed of 30 % micro ZnO (30 M), 20 % micro ZnO and 10 % nano ZnO (20 M−10 N), 10 % micro ZnO and 20 % nano ZnO (10 M−20 N), and lastly 30 % nano ZnO (30 N). The theoretical XCOM software was employed to validate the experimental LAC values of the glasses, revealing that for at all energies, the values obtained from the two methods agreed with each other well. The glasses’ HVL, MFP, and RSE were then compared. The HVL values at all energies decreased as more nano ZnO was introduced into the glass system, reaching a minimum of 1.947 cm at 0.662 MeV for the 30 N sample. This sample also had the lowest MFP at all energies, while the 30 M glass had the highest, such as 0.088 and 0.070 for 30 M and 30 N respectively at 0.060 MeV. The RSE of a 1 cm thick sample of each of the glasses was tested and found that the 30 N sample exhibited the greatest RSE. The relative percent deviation between the 30 N and 30 M glasses was also analyzed, which highlighted the difference between 30 N’s greater LAC values compared to 30 M at all energies.