Abstract
Abstract
This study presents a detailed investigation into the nuclear radiation shielding capabilities of lithium silicate (Li2O-SiO2) glass systems, specifically examining the impact of doping with barium oxide (BaO) and calcium oxide (CaO). Utilizing advanced simulation tools, including PAGEX and SRIM for charged particle interactions, and Phy-X/PSD for gamma-ray attenuation analysis, the radiation shielding effectiveness of BaO-based and CaO-based lithium silicate glasses were systematically compared. The gamma attenuation parameters (LAC, MAC, TVL, HVL, EBF, EABF, MFP, Zeff, Neff, FNRCS, and Zeq) of investigated glass samples were computed via the Phy-X/PSD program (15 keV-15 MeV energy). The HVL values vary between 0.007–14.203 cm, and the TVL values vary between 0.054–47.182 cm for all samples in the selected energy range. The highest and lowest values of FNRCS were observed for samples BaO20 and CaO5, with the values 0.093 and 0.1 cm−1, respectively. KERMAs were calculated using PAGEX software between the 1.5 keV and 20 MeV energy range, with the highest KERMA obtained for the BaO20 sample at 0.05 MeV and the lowest KERMA obtained for the CaO5 sample at the lowest density. The mass stopping power quantities were computed between 1 keV-10 GeV energy with PAGEX. The projected range values were calculated with SRIM codes. The lowest projected range values for both alpha particles and protons were obtained for the BaO20 sample with maximum density (3.391 g cm−3). The sample with BaO20 code showed better shielding potential for alpha and proton particles with lower values of projected range and mass stopping power. Findings reveal that the Li2O-BaO-SiO2 glass composition exhibits superior gamma-ray attenuation properties compared to its CaO-doped counterpart, with the BaO20 sample demonstrating particularly enhanced performance.