Investigating Bi2O3B2O3 BaO Glass Systems for Radiation Shielding Applications

This research was conducted to study x-ray and gamma radiation shielding parameters such as mass attenuation coeffcient, mean free path, half value layer, tenth value layer, effective atomic numbers, effective electron density for the xBi(2)O(3)-(95-x)B2O3-5BaO (where x = 20 mol%, 35 mol%, 50 mol%, and 70 mol%) glass systems with different molar composition. The studied ceramic specimens were denoted by BB20, BB35, BB50 and BB70 and their density values were 4.438 g/cm(3), 5.973 g/cm(3), 7.156 g/cm(3), and 8.005 g/cm(3), respectively. Radiation shielding parameters of the samples were investigated by using web based XCall programme. The obtained results revealed that the highest mass attenuation coefficients were reported for BB70 sample, which has the highest Bi2O3 additive in its chemical structure. At 7 MeV photon energy, half value layer (HYL) values were reported as 5.7812 cm, 3.8065 cm, 2.8533 cm, and 2.2457 cm for BB20, BB35, BB50 and BB70, respectively. Therefore, It can be concluded that the present bismuth sesquioxide based glasses in the Bi2O3-B2O3-BaO glass system have a good quality in radiation protection purposes. Therefore, this glass system can be used as an alternative to conventional materials with the right molar compositon in its chemical formation.