Effect of BaO addition on gamma radiation shielding performance of sodium barium borate glasses using FLUKA code and PhyX/PSD platform

Novel Glass system with a formula of xBaO.(30-x).Na2O.70B2O3 (0 <= x <= 30 mol%) have been prepared and examined. The BNaBax-glass structure was used to estimate the influence of BaO addition on the density and molar volume. There is a linear increase in density with increasing BaO concentration. The molar volume varies oppositely. Furthermore, the impact of barium oxide on the gamma and neutron radiation shielding capacities of xBaO.(30-x).Na2O-70B2O3 glasses have been investigated for radiation shielding applications. The mu m: coef-ficient of mass attenuation for BNaBa-0, BNaBa-5, BNaBa-10, BNaBa-15, BNaBa-20, BNaBa-25, and BNaBa-30 glass samples were simulated using the Monte Carlo simulation FLUKA algorithm, in photon energy ranged 0.015MeV-15MeV, the resulting mu m simulated results were compared with the Phy-X/PSD platform. The T1/2: half-value layer, lambda: mean free path, Zeff: effective atomic number, EBF: exposure, and EABF: energy absorption buildup factors of the BNaBax-glass samples have been estimated. The results presented that a BNaBa-30-glass with a 30-mol.% concentration of BaO has the best gamma and neutron shielding capabilities than the other investigated BNaBax-glass samples.

Automated summary

This study investigated a novel glass system with the formula xBaO.(30-x).Na2O.70B2O3 (0 <= x <= 30 mol%). The BNaBa-glass structure was used to assess the influence of BaO addition on density and molar volume. It was found that density increased linearly with increasing BaO concentration, while molar volume showed the opposite trend. Furthermore, the effect of barium oxide on the gamma and neutron radiation shielding capacities of xBaO.(30-x).Na2O-70B2O3 glasses was examined. The results showed that a BNaBa-30-glass with 30 mol.% BaO had the best shielding capabilities among the investigated samples.