Influence of ZrO2 on gamma shielding properties of lead borate glasses

In this paper, new lead borate glass system in the chemical form of 40B(2)O(3)-40PbO-20Li(2)O(3)-xZrO(2); where x = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 1, and 1.5 mol% has been synthesized. Gamma-ray shielding properties of these glasses have been tested in terms of mass attenuation coefficient (mu/rho), half value layer (HVL), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), mean free path (MFP), and exposure build-up factor (EBF). The mu/rho values of the prepared glasses were generated by FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations over an extended energy range of 0.015-15 MeV, and then, the generated data were verified using the calculated values of XCOM software. The results showed that gamma-ray shielding ability of BPLZ0.00 is superior among the other prepared glasses. Moreover, the gamma-ray shielding properties of the current glass system have been compared with that of some commercial glasses and newly developed HMO glasses. It can be concluded that the prepared glass system could be useful to design and/or develop novel shields for radiation protection applications.