Physical, structural, mechanical, and radiation shielding properties of the PbO–B2O3–Bi2O3–ZnO glass system

This study investigates the effect of replacing PbO with Bi2O3 on the physical, mechanical, and radiation shielding features of a PbO–B2O3–ZnO glass system. 40PbO–50B2O3–10ZnO, 30PbO–50B2O3–10Bi2O3–10ZnO, and 20PbO–50B2O3–20Bi2O3–10ZnO glass samples coded as PBBZ1, PBBZ2, and PBBZ3, respectively, were fabricated via the melt quench process. The amorphous nature is confirmed for each prepared samples via X-ray diffraction measurements. Measured density revealed that the mass density of the glasses decreases as the doping concentration of Bi2O3 increases. Using the Mackenzie–Makishima model, all evaluated mechanical parameters of the glass samples showed a declining trend as the molar concentration of Bi2O3 increases from 0 to 20 mol%. Gamma-ray transmission parameters of the glasses determined by experimentation, FLUKA simulations, and XCOM calculations for selected energies of photons within the range of 0.1–10 MeV showed dependence on the glass chemical content. Mass attenuation coefficient of the glasses varied from 0.0369 to 3.5494, 0.03769 to 3.794, and 0.03816 to 3.97 cm2 g−1, respectively, for PBBZ1, PBBZ2, and PBBZ3, while their effective atomic number was within 18.22–73.79. Furthermore, the specific gamma ray constant, mass energy absorption coefficient, and absorbed dose rate at equal photon energy and glass thickness follow the trend: PBBZ1 > PBBZ2 > PBBZ3. This trend was also observed for fast neutron removal cross section, total cross section for thermal neutron, stopping powers of electron, proton, α-particle, and carbon ion. A comparison of the shielding ability of the PBBZ samples with several conventional shields shows that PBBZ have outstanding shielding features. Hence, the PBBZ glasses can effectively replace some of the existing shields in radiation protection applications.