Gamma-ray shielding parameters of Li2B4O7 glasses: undoped and doped with magnetite, siderite and Zinc-Borate minerals cases

Abstract

Abstract Designing new shielding materials and calculating their shielding parameters are important task to keep living in safe from hazardous effects of radiation. In this study, the lithium borate glasses with chemical formula (Li2B4O7)(100−x)Yx (x = 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 wt % and Y = magnetite, siderite and zinc-borate) were fabricated via melt quenching technique. X-ray diffraction method was employed to confirm amorphous structure of fabricated glass samples. The glass sample’s shielding parameters such as mass attenuation coefficient, effective atomic number, and half value layer were measured experimentally by the narrow beam transmission method for 81, 276, 302, 356, and 383 keV of incident photon energies. Also, WinXCom software was used to calculate theoretical shielding parameters from 1 keV to 105 MeV photon energy. Moreover, Geometric Progression (G–P) method was used to calculate exposure buildup factor (EBF) values for incident photon energy 0.015 MeV–15 MeV up to penetration depths of 40 mfp (mean free path). Among the obtained results, while Li2B4O7 glass with magnetite 40 % has the highest mass attenuation and effective atomic number, it has the lowest half value layer and exposure buildup factor. The results show that the fabricated glass systems could be considered as a good candidate for radiation safety.