Synthesis of Pb3O4-SiO2-ZnO-WO3 Glasses and their Fundamental Properties for Gamma Shielding Applications

Zinc lead silicate glass system contains different amount of WO3 were fabricated using the classical melt-quench technique. The nature of the samples was investigated using X-ray diffraction. The ultrasonic velocities and elastic moduli were tested experimentally after that the results were compared by using the theoretical consideration. With increasing the WO3 content, decreasing the molar volume causes a decrease in the inter-ionic distance Ri. The FLUKA code were used to estimate the main attenuation considerations mass attenuation coefficients (MAC) and linear attenuation coefficients (LAC). The LAC increment from 0.728 cm-1 to 0.856 cm−1 as the WO3 concentration increment from 0 to 5 mol%, resulting in high shielding performance for G5. The dose rate at energy of 0.6 MeV with the G5 sample found to be declines from 2.35 × 107 R/h at 1 mm to 4.71 × 106 R/h at 4 mm. The values of mean free path (MFP) and the half value layer (HVL) are smaller than those of the traditional photon shields signifying that the fabricated samples (particularly G5) have interesting shielding characteristics to be used in applications involving x/gamma rays.