Radiation Shielding Analysis of Multi-Component Glasses: Effects of Varying BaO, PbO₂ and Gd₂O₃ Concentrations

This work investigates the impact of BaO, PbO 2 , and Gd 2 O 3 on newly developed borate glasses’ radiation shielding characteristics. The transmission factor (TF) of the glasses is almost zero at the low energy of 0.0395 MeV, which indicates favorable low-energy photon shielding. The maximum TF is reported at 1.46 MeV for the free Gd 2 O 3 glass sample, ranging from 0.89 (0.5 cm thickness) to 0.73 (1.5 cm thickness). Moreover, with more BaO, PbO 2 , and Gd 2 O 3 content added to the glasses, the TF decreases, indicating an enhancement in the efficiency of the glasses’ radiation protection with the introduction of BaO, PbO 2 , and Gd 2 O 3 . There is a 4.309 to 5.068 g cm −3 increase in the glasses’ density, and, as a result, the mean free path decreases, suggesting improved performance for radiation protection with the adding of more BaO, PbO 2 , and Gd 2 O 3 contents to the glasses. At 0.122 MeV, the free Gd 2 O 3 glass’s half value layer value is 0.098 cm, while the tenth value layer is 0.325 cm.