Experimental Investigation of Radiation Shielding Competence of BiO-CaO-KO-NaO-PO Glass Systems.

The gamma-ray shielding features of BiO-CaO-KO-NaO-PO glass systems were experimentally reported. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) for the fabricated glasses was experimentally measured at seven energy values (between 0.0595 and 1.33 MeV). The compatibility between the practical and theoretical results shows the accuracy of the results obtained in the laboratory for determining the MAC of the prepared samples. The mass and linear attenuation coefficients (MACs) increase with the addition of BiO and A4 glass possesses the highest MAC and LAC. A downward trend in the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) with increasing the energy from 0.0595 to 1.33 MeV is found. The highest LAC is found at 1.33 MeV (in the range of 0.092-0.143 cm). The effective atomic number (Z) follows the order B1 > A1 > A2 > A3 > A4. This order emphasizes that increasing the content of BiO has a positive effect on the photon shielding proficiencies owing to the higher density of BiO compared with NaO. The half value layer (HVL) is also determined and the HVL for the tested glasses is computed between 0.106 and 0.958 cm at 0.0595 MeV. The glass with 10 mol% of BiO has lower HVL than the glasses with 0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5 mol% of BiO. So, the A4 glass needs a smaller thickness than the other glasses to shield the same radiation. As a result of the reported shielding parameters, inserting BO provides lower values of these three parameters, which in turn leads to the development of superior photons shields.