Fabrication, physical properties and γ-ray shielding factors of high dense B₂O₃–PbO–Na₂O–CdO–ZnO glasses: impact of B₂O₃/PbO substitution

Four glasses of cadmium lead-borate glasses with nominal compositions of (75-X)B₂O₃–XPbO–5Na₂O–10CdO–10ZnO: X = 5 (BPNCZPb-5), 10 (BPNCZPb-10), 15 (BPNCZPb-15), and 20 (BPNCZPb-20) mol% were fabricated using the well-known melt quenching route.The role of B₂O₃/PbO substitution on the physical properties and γ-ray shielding factors have been evaluated via MCNP simulation code and PhX software in the γ-energy range of 0.015: 15 MeV. The density (ρ) and molar volume (V_m) of the examined glasses grows systematically from 4.82 to 5.664 g/cm³ and from 18.88 to 22.02 cm³/mol as the PbO content increases from 5 to 20 mol% in the glass network. The oxygen molar volume (OMV) increased following the observation of an opposing the oxygen packing density (OPD) trend. The obtained values of simulated linear-absorption coefficient (µ) were in decent agreement with the values calculated by PhX software with a maximum relative differences, φ = of 4.497%. The simulated µ values drop from 127.981 to 0.130 cm⁻¹ for BPNCZPb-5, from 189.241 to 0.158 cm⁻¹ for BPNCZPb-10, from 243.308 to 0.180 cm⁻¹ for BPNCZPb-15, and from 299.755 to 0.206 cm⁻¹ for BPNCZPb-20 at photon energy range from 0.015: 15 MeV. At 0.5, 5, and 10 MeV, the µ of the BPNCZPb-X glasses have higher values than those of concretes. The BPNCZPb-20 glass sample possessed the lowest half- (HVL) and tenth- (TVL) value layers. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) values reduced from ≈ 100.000% at 0.015 for all BPNCZPb-X glass samples to 6.305% (BPNCZPb-5), 7.587% (BPNCZPb-10), 8.626% (BPNCZPb-15), and 9.777% (BPNCZPb-20), respectively at gamma-ray energy 15 MeV. Results confirm that the suggested samples can be applied as alternative materials for radiation safety applications.