Fabrication, physical characteristic, and gamma-photon attenuation parameters of newly developed molybdenum reinforced bismuth borate glasses

To observe the direct effect of molybdenum reinforcement on nuclear radiation shielding properties, a detailed investigation was performed with a group of bismuth borate glasses. Accordingly, glass samples with the nominal compositions (65-x)B 2 O 3 + 20Bi 2 O 3 + 15Na 2 O + xMoO 3 : x = 0, 1.5, 3, 4.5, 6 and 7.5 wt% have been synthesized by the solid state conventional method. The samples were named as M0 (x = 0), M1 (x = 1.5), M2 (x = 3), M3 (x = 4.5), M4 (x = 6) and M5 (x = 7.5). Physical characteristics and gamma-photon attenuation properties of (M0-M5) glasses have been investigated via MCNPX simulation code and XCOM program. XRD patterns confirmed that M0-M5 glasses were in amorphous nature. The density of the prepared glasses increased from 4.4104 for M0 glass sample to 5.3012 gm cm −3 , while molar volume decreased from 33.50083 to 28.92114 cm 3 mol −1 . The mass attenuation coefficient ( μ m ) increased with the increment of MoO 3 concentration in mol% and followed the order: (M0) μ m < (M1) μ m < (M2) μ m < (M3) μ m < (M4) μ m < (M5) μ m at all photon energies. The mean free path (MFP), half value layer (HVL), and tenth value layer (TVL) for the prepared glasses M0-M5 have the same trend and follow the order: (M5) MFP, HVL, TVL < (M4) MFP, HVL, TVL < (M3) MFP, HVL, TVL < (M2) MFP, HVL, TVL < (M1) MFP, HVL, TVL < (M1) MFP, HVL, TVL . The M5 glass sample (with maximum MoO 3 ) achieved highest effective atomic number (Z eff )and equivalent atomic numbers (Z eq ) values for all photon energy ranges (low-medium-high). Among all the glass samples, the exposure build-up factor (EBF) and energy absorption build-up factor (EABF) values for M5 glass sample with the highest MoO 3 additive are minimum due to the low amount of photons accumulated. These results indicate that M5 glass sample theoretically provides maximum protection for gamma-rays among all the samples.