The significant role of CeO2 content on the radiation shielding performance of Fe2O3-P2O5 glass-ceramics: Geant4 simulations study

Natural and artificial sources of radiation can be encountered in many areas of our lives. Particularly, ionizing radiation has harmful effects on humans therefore researchers look for novel materials an alternative to traditional shielding materials to protect humans. For this purpose, in this paper, newly developed glass-ceramics in the chemical form of (100 - x)(40Fe(2)O(3) + 60P(2)O(5)) + xCeO(2), x is between 0 and 8 mol%, were reported in terms of their gamma/neutron attenuation properties to serve for radiation shielding applications. Gamma attenuation features were investigated by using the Monte Carlo method via Geant4 toolkit. From Geant4 simulations, the coefficients of mass attenuation (denoted by mu/rho or MAC) were extracted and then compared with those of Phy-X/PSD calculations. The MAC values (at 0.015 MeV as an example) increased from 21.029 cm(2) g(-1) to 24.446 cm(2) g(-1) as the CeO2 content increased from 0 to 8 mol%. The HVL values are between 0.011-9.830 cm for CFP-0, 0.010-9.376 cm for CFP-2, 0.010-8.863 cm for CFP-4, 0.009-8.675 cm for CFP-6 and 0.009-8.424 cm for CFP-8 in energy range from 0.015-15 MeV. The Z(eff) values (at 1 MeV gamma energy) are 11.70, 11.84, 11.99, 12.15, and 12.30 for CFP-0, CFP-2, CFP-4, CFP-6, and CFP-8 glass-ceramics, respectively. The maximum Z(eq) values for the present glass-ceramics are occurred at 1 MeV with the values of 19.21, 22.69, 25.14, 27.10, and 28.73 for CFP-0, CFP-2, CFP-4, CFP-6, and CFP-8 glass-ceramics, respectively. The results show that theoretically, CFP-8 has better photon absorption features due to the higher content of CeO2 among the investigated CFP ceramic glasses. Contrary to these results, there is not considerable variations between among removal cross section (RCS) for fast neutron of CFP glass ceramics with the rising of CeO2.

Automated summary

Natural and artificial sources of radiation are common in our lives, with ionizing radiation being harmful to humans. In this study, newly developed glass-ceramics with varying levels of CeO2 were investigated for their gamma/neutron attenuation properties for radiation shielding. The results showed that increasing CeO2 content improved photon absorption features, but had minimal impact on fast neutron removal cross sections.