Mechanical and nuclear shielding properties of sodium cadmium borate glasses: Impact of cadmium oxide additive

In this study, highly effective radiation shielding glass materials with different amount of CdO additive were investigated in terms of nuclear shielding performance. Moreover, mechanical properties have been determined. The mu m values were computed using XCOM and XMuDat program. The gamma and neutron shielding parameters such as mu m, HVL, Z(eff), EBF, EABF, SAFE, b(co), b(ico), sigma(abs) are calculated to understand the radiation shielding performances of investigated glasses. The results show that mu(m), Z(eff) and sigma(abs) values increase as the CdO content increases. The S7 sample has the lowest HVL, MFP, EBF, EABF, SAFE, b(co), b(ico) and sigma(co) values. Therefore, S7 glass sample (70 mol% of CdO) which has also the highest number of bonds per unit volume can be considered as a superior material for radiation shielding applications. The outcomes of this study can be very useful for future applications of investigated glass materials in medical and industrial radiation fields.