Radiation Shielding Parameters for Zinc Borate and Zinc Silicate Glasses Doped with Oxides of Bismuth -A Comparative Study

Abstract

In the present work borate and silicate glass systems containing oxides of zinc and bismuth are explored as potential candidates for the radiation shielding applications. NIST XCOM computer program is employed for the estimations of mass attenuation and half value layer at different photon energy values ranging from 10-3MeV to 105 MeV. To get the idea regarding thickness of the glass material required to decrease the intensity of gamma ray photons to 50% of its starting value, the values of half value layer are analysed. Physical parameters like molar volume and density measurements are conducted to get insight of glass structure. The results obtained are compared with conventional shielding materials like concretes. The present work shows that the reports glasses in the present study are quite useful for radiation shielding purpose.