Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials, vol.31, no.12, pp.4546-4562, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
In the current study, 10PbO-xSrO-(90-x)B2O3 (x is between 20 and 45 mol% with a step of 5 mol%) glasses with SrO inserted in various proportions were surveyed in terms of nuclear shielding qualities. Gamma- ray shielding features of the glasses encoded BPS1-BPS6 were investigated in the energy range of 0.015–15 MeV. The mass attenuation coefficients (MAC) of BPS glasses were composed via GEANT4 simulation codes and the accuracy of the outcomes was checked by WinXCOM software. The MAC values of BPS1 and BPS6 glasses were obtained between 14.934–0.024 g/cm2 and 19.047–0.029 g/cm2 in the energy range of 0.015–15 MeV. Further, other essential parameters, MFP, Zeff, Zeq, EABF, and EBF were derived from the MAC values for the same energies. It was noted that the MFP values of the BPS6 glass are higher than some commercial glasses and ordinary concrete at chosen energy intervals. According to the results achieved, EBF, EABF, and MFP values decline as the percentage of SrO in the BPS glasses increases. The highest Zeff was achieved by BPS6 (with 45% SrO), while the lowest Zeff was obtained by BPS1 (with 20% SrO). Finally, fast neutron removal cross-sections (ΣR), Mass Stopping Power (MSP), and Projected Range (PR) values were computed to investigate the fast neutron, proton and alpha shielding properties of SrO added BPS glasses. It is seen that the ΣR values of BPS glasses vary in the range of 0.126 cm−1–0.117 cm−1. The addition of SrO in the glass leads to reduce the ranges of charged and uncharged particles. According to the outcomes achieved, BPS6 glass with 45% SrO additives can be regarded as an effective radiation shield used in many technological disciplines.