Synthesis and photon interaction characterizations of some bioactive glasses

Abstract We aim to explore the photon interaction characteristics for some bioactive glass having composition 20SiO2-7.5K2O-7.5Na2O-xCaO-(65-x) P2O5 where x= 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0 mol %. These bioactive glasses are fabricated via melt quenching technique and labelled as GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4 respectively. XRD results revel the amorphous nature of glass samples. Physical Parameters such as density and optimum thickness range were measured for these glass samples. Density increases with the increase in CaO content while optimum thickness range decreases with the increase in CaO content for prepared glass samples. The mass attenuation coefficient (µm)theo is computed using WinXCom software package while experimental mass attenuation coefficient (µm)exp is evaluated using narrow beam transmission geometry at 511, 662, 1173 and 1332 keV. The values of mass attenuation coefficient, both experimental (µm)exp and theoretical (µm)theo are in good agreement with each other. Similarly, the experimentally obtained other photon interaction parameters such as effective atomic number (Zeff), electron density (Ne) and thickness normalising parameters (mean free path (mfp), half value layer (HVL), tenth value layer (TVL)) values are comparable with theoretical ones. Although, radiation protection efficiency (RPE) of GC4 glass sample is maximum for all specified photon energies. While comparing GC4 glass sample with commercially used 45S5 bioglass; it has been observed that all parameters are nearly same. Hence, GC4 glass sample having comparable bioactivity can easily replace 45S5.