Radiation shielding performance of Co2O3-TeO2-Li2O-ZrO2 glass-ceramics

This study presents the photon shielding factors, viz, the linear attenuation (LAC) and mass (MAC) attenuation coefficients, half-value layer (HVL), transmission factor TF, and effective atomic number Z(eff) of xCo(2)O(3)-(100 - x)[80 TeO2-19Li(2)O-1ZrO(2)] glass-ceramic system (for 0 <= x <= 20 mol%) synthesized by the melt-quench method. The parameters were estimated using FLUKA simulations and compared with WinXCOM calculations for low photon energies in the range 241-2510 keV. Generally, LAC values smoothly decline with photon energy with highest (lowest) value at minimum (maximum) energy. The corresponding highest (lowest) values of LAC was 0.961 (0.205), 0.955(0.206), 0.911 (0.205), and 0.853 (0.205) cm(-1) for Co2O3 concentration of 0-20 mol%. The HVL values of CoTeLiZr1 and CoTeLiZr4 samples equaled 0.72 cm and 0.81 cm, correspondingly, at photon energy 284 keV and both increased to 3.38 cm at 2506 keV. At minimum (maximum) photon energy, Z(eff) value was obtained as 27.94 (19.27), 27.73 (19.16), 26.08 (18.35), and 24.06 (17.59) for CoTeLiZr1, CoTeLiZr2, CoTeLiZr3, and CoTeLiZr4, respectively. Analysis of all estimated parameters shows that the gamma photon shielding efficiency improves according to the trend CoTeLiZr1 > CoTeLiZr2 > CoTeLiZr3 > CoTeLiZr4. The partial replacement of TeO2 with CoO3 leads to the decline in the photon shielding efficacy and mass density of the glass-ceramics. The CoTeLiZr1-4 exhibit substantially enhanced shielding efficiency with respect to ordinary concrete, barite concrete, and RS-253-G18 commercial shield. The present materials thus have great potential as gamma photon absorbers in nuclear facilities where low energy photons are applied.

Automated summary

This study estimated the photon shielding factors of xCo(2)O(3)-(100 - x)[80 TeO2-19Li(2)O-1ZrO(2)] glass-ceramic system using FLUKA simulations and found that the shielding efficiency of CoTeLiZr1-4 samples is significantly improved, indicating their potential as gamma photon absorbers in nuclear facilities.