Optically transparent glass modified with metal oxides for X-rays and gamma rays shielding material

BACKGROUND: Metal oxide glass composites have attracted huge interest as promising shielding materials to replace toxic, heavy, and costly conventional shielding materials. OBJECTIVE: In this work, we evaluate shielding effectiveness of four novel tellurite-based glasses samples doped with oxide metals (namely, A, B, C, and D, which are 75TeO(2)- 10P(2)O(5)- 10ZnO- 5PbF(2)- 0.24Er(2)O(3); 70TeO(2)- 10P(2)O(5)- 10ZnO-5PbF(2) -5MgO- 0.24Er(2)O(3); 70TeO(2)- 10P(2)O(5)- 10ZnO- 5PbF(2)- 5BaO- 0.24Er(2)O(3); and 70TeO(2)- 10P(2)O(5)-10ZnO-5PbF(2)-5SrO; respectively) by assessing them through a wide range of ionizing radiation energies (0.015-15 MeV). METHODS: The radiation-shielding parameters including mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path, (MFP), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), effective electron number (N-eff), and the transmission factor are computed in the selected range of ionizing radiation energies. Furthermore, the proposed samples were compared with the most common shielding glass materials. The optical parameters viz oscillator, dispersion energy, nonlinear refractive indices, molar, and electronic polarizability of these transparent glasses are reported at different wavelengths. RESULTS: The results show that the proposed samples have considerable effectiveness as transparent shielding glass materials at various ionizing radiation energies. They can be employed for effective radiation-protection outcomes. Sample C demonstrated slightly better shielding properties than the other samples with differences of 1.33%, 4.6%, and 4.2% for samples A, B, and D, respectively. A similar trend is observed regarding the mass attenuation coefficients. Nevertheless, sample B shows better optical properties than the other prepared glass samples. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the proposed novel glass samples have good shielding properties and optical characteristics, which can pave the way for their utilization as transparent radiation-shielding materials in medical and industrial applications.