A lanthanum-barium-borovanadate glass containing Bi2O3 for radiation shielding applications

Radiation shielding materials are of prime importance for weighing the benefit-to-risk of ionizing radiation. In this perspective, a lanthanum-barium-borovanadate (BVBL) glass containing varying amounts of bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) is studied in this work. The glass composition of 5La2O3-10BaO-(65-x)B2O3-20V2O5-xBi2O3 where x: 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 mol% has been purposed, and thus six different glass series with BVBL0 to BVBL15 coded were investigated for the physical, mechanical, and radiation shielding features. Physical property calculations revealed that the glass density increase from 3.1685 to 4.1345 g cm-3 with the insertion of Bi2O3 from 0 to 15 mol %. Furthermore, mechanical properties in terms of the Mackenzie-Makishima model demonstrated that Young's, bulk, shear, and longitudinal moduli were reduced following the concentration of Bi2O3. In particular, the BVBL0 sample showed the best mechanical moduli amongst others. Radiation shielding competencies were ascertained by using Phy-X/PSD and Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP-5). The theoretical computations via Phy-X/PSD clearly indicated that the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) showed enhanced characteristics with the increasing content of Bi2O3. Based upon the determined LAC, the other essential parameters such as halfvalue layer (HVL), effective atomic number (Zeff), and transmission factor (TF) were also assessed. Moreover, the MCNP-5 simulation demonstrated that the BVBL15 sample provided the best radiation attenuation compared to the undoped BVBL0. Moreover, both Phy-X/PSD and MCNP5 studies displayed good agreement with each other. Overall, we concluded that Bi2O3 seems to be a strong candidate for improving radiation attenuation coefficients in the BVBL glass system.