Theoretical Examination of the Radiation Shielding Qualities of MgO-PbO-SiO₂-B₂O₃-BaO Glass Systems

Melt quenching method was used to prepare a glass series composed of 5MgO-20PbO-10SiO₂-(65-x)B₂O₃-xBaO, (x = 10, 15, 20 and 25 mol%), with the resulting glasses' capacity for radiation shielding explored through Phy-X software. The mass attenuation coefficients (MAC) were examined in the 0.122–1.485 MeV energy range, with 0.122 MeV the resulting maximum value and a 1.557–1.611 cm²/g variation. At the low energy range, a clear relationship between the MAC and the energy emerged, with 0.054 cm²/g at 0.122 MeV representing the MAC difference between the lowest and highest BaO-content glasses. Conversely, at the high energy range, the influence of BaO on the MAC diminished considerably, whereby the MAC difference between the two glasses was a mere 0.001. We evaluated the prepared glasses' linear attenuation coefficients (LAC), finding a direct relation between the LAC and glass density. At 0.245 MeV, the LAC values were 1.425, 1.486, 1.546, and 1.607 cm⁻¹ at the respective densities of 4.275, 4.438, 4.601, and 4.764 cm⁻¹. According to the LAC results, the glass with the composition of 5MgO-20PbO-40 B₂O₃-10SiO₂-25BaO has the more desirable shielding properties. We observed a decrease in the TF with increasing the amount of BaO in the prepared glasses. This observation implies that BaO has an important role in enhancing the glasses' radiation shielding ability.