Investigation of gamma ray shielding and transmission properties in B2O3-Doped glasses

Abstract

This study investigates the radiation shielding properties of boron oxide (B2O3)-doped glass materials, synthesized via melt water quenching, with varying B2O3 content from 0 to 25 wt%. Six glass samples were analyzed using Phy-X/PSD software to calculate key radiation protection parameters, including linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), and mean free path (MFP) across photon energy ranges from 10-3 to 105 MeV. The results indicate that increasing B2O3 content led to a reduction in material density, from 2.285 g/cm3 for S1 (0 wt% B2O3) to 1.990 g/cm3 for S6 (25 wt% B2O3), causing a corresponding decrease in LAC values from 41.97 cm- 1 to 34.88 cm-1 at 100 keV. MAC values declined by 17 %, and HVL increased by 14.6 %, from 0.048 cm in S1 to 0.055 cm in S6 at 1 MeV. MFP values increased by 16.7 %, further illustrating the weakened radiation shielding capacity with higher B2O3 content. It can be concluded that while boron-doped glasses offer environmental benefits, their reduced radiation attenuation capacity with increasing B2O3 content necessitates further optimization to enhance their suitability for medical and industrial applications.