Investigations on physical, structural and nuclear radiation shielding behaviour of niobium-bismuth-cadmium-zinc borate glass system

In the present paper, glass sample with the chemical composition xNb(2)O(5)+0.20Bi(2)O(3) +0.20CdO+0.10ZnO+ (0.50-x)B2O3 (where x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25 mol fraction) were prepared by melt quenching-annealing technique. The density, molar volume, oxygen molar volume (OMV) of the glass samples are found to increase increases from 5.35 to 5.65 gcm(-3) , 32.69-37.32 cm(3)/mole, 14.323-14336 cm(3)/mole, respectively, with the increase in molar concentration of Niobium pentoxide. The value of Poisson's ratio shows a very small variation in the range of 0.240-0.247 for the present glass matrix, however these results confirms that the prepared glass samples have high cross link density. The linear attenuation coefficients were measured experimentally by employing narrow beam transmission geometry (total scatter acceptance angle = 2.22 degrees) with NaI(Tl) spectroscopy in the gamma photon energy range of 59.54-1332 keV. These values of linear attenuation coefficient were then further used to calculate other attenuation parameters namely Half Value Layer (HVL), Radiation Protection Efficiency (RPE), Mass Attenuation Coefficient (MAC), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), electron density (N-e) and Buildup Factor (BF). Measured values of attenuation parameters have also been compared the values obtained theoretically using online software Phy-X/PSD and Py-MLBUF as well as with values obtained through FLUKA (Monte-Carlo) simulations code. Excellent agreements have been observed between experimental, theoretical and simulation results for the prepared glass samples. In addition to this, fast neutron removal cross sections (Sigma(R)cm(-1)) were calculated for the glass matrix under investigations. On the basis of the obtained results, it has been reported that the prepared glass samples possess superior shielding efficiency against gamma rays and fast neutrons as compared to conventional shielding materials.