Assessing Gamma Radiation Shielding in Barium-Titanium Borate Glasses: The Role of PbO₂ and ZnO Doping

To investigate their radiation shielding features, barium-titanium borate glasses with different amounts of doped ZnO and PbO 2 were prepared. The prepared glasses’ radiation shielding factors at different photon energies corresponding to the energies emitted from the Co-60 and Cs-137 sources were calculated theoretically by the Phy-X software. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) values were shown to linearly increase with increasing density, with the rate of increase dependent on the photon energy. The slope of the LAC–energy curve suggests that at lower energies the density of the glasses has a significant LAC impact, whereas the influence of density on the LAC diminishes as the photon energy increases. The smallest mean free path was observed at 0.284 MeV in the 1.109–1.542 cm range, which rose to 1.473–1.961 cm with an energy increase to 0.347 MeV. The average half value layer results indicated that for the Zn5Pb5 sample, a glass with a thickness of approximately 1.7 cm would be suitable for applications involving Cs-137, whereas a thicker glass (around 2.70 cm) would be preferable for applications involving Co-60.