Development of new lead-free borate glasses: Experimental evaluation for the impact of BaO on radiation shielding properties of glasses

This study investigated advanced glass compositions for gamma-ray shielding consisting of (78-x) B 2 O 3 -8MgO-13ZnO-1Eu 2 O 3 -xBaO, x = 23, 26, 29, and 32 mol%. Attenuation coefficients were calculated experimentally and simulated. The results between the two methods are fairly similar, with a ± 5 % experimental–measured data difference. The addition of BaO improves the shielding performance of the prepared BMZE glass. The progression of the BaO concentration from 23 to 32 mol% within the prepared BMZE glasses causes an improvement in their LACs from 0.299 to 0.319 cm −1 at 661.7 keV and shows a consistent improvement over the examined gamma-ray energy range of 59.5–1332 keV. It is shown that the BMZE1–BMZE4 glass samples exhibited superior protection performance to RS 323 G19 lead-based shielding commercial glass, which contains 33 % lead oxide and 1.8 % cerium oxide, while BMZE4 exhibited superior protection performance to RS 360 lead-based shielding commercial glass, which contains 45 % lead oxide. Therefore, the prepared BMZE4 glass represents a lead-free shielding glass alternative for hospital nuclear medicine applications.