Nuclear radiation shielding competences of barium-reinforced borosilicate glasses

The gamma photon and neutron shielding effectiveness of borosilicate glasses with alumina in the chemical structure 40SiO₂.10B₂O₃.xBaO.(45 − x)CaO.5Al₂O₃.yZnO.zMgO glasses (20 ≤ x ≤ 40 mol% and y = z = 6 wt%) was evaluated. The investigated glasses were coded as BCBSA-20B (barium oxide (BaO) = 20 mol%) to BCBSA-40B (barium oxide = 40 mol%). The results showed that the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) increased when barium oxide increased in the samples, and the samples were arranged in order as BCBSA-20B < BCBSA-25B < BCBSA-30B < BCBSA-35B < BCBSA-40B. In terms of MAC values, the BCBSA-40B sample has the lowest values of half-value layer and mean free path but has the highest values of effective atomic number (Z _eff). Moreover, the neutron shielding competences of glasses have been determined by way of calculating the removal cross-section for the fast neutrons, Σ _R (cm⁻¹), which was the highest for the BCBSA-40B glass (Σ _R = 0.0994 cm⁻¹) among the studied samples. In addition, mass stopping power (Ψ) and the projected range (Φ) for proton and alpha particles were also calculated. It was found that the BCBSA-40B sample has the lowest Ψ and Φ among the studied glasses. It can be concluded that the replacement of the calcium oxide (CaO) content with the barium oxide contents enhances the shielding capacity against the charged particles, electromagnetic radiation and the fast neutrons. The finding of recent investigations can be useful for advanced nuclear engineering and protection studies.