Correlation of mechanical and radiation shielding characteristics of cadmium phosphate glasses modified with Li2O and Sm2O3 through the use of Monte Carlo simulations and various computer programs

Abstract

A glass with a composition of 60 P₂O₅- 20CdO- (20-x) Li₂O- xSm₂O_3, where x=(0 < x ≤ 2 mol%), was produced by a smelt quenching procedure, by supplying samarium ions to the present glass. The density increased, whereas the molar volume reduced. The ultrasonic velocities increase from 4305 to 4495, and from 2210 to 2395 m/s, for longitudinal and transverse, respectively. Depending on these velocities, the elastic moduli (L, G, K, Y) can be experimentally obtained. On the other side, by using the dissociation energy (G_i) & packing density (v_i), the previous elastic moduli can be calculated theoretically by the Makishima Mackenzie model. It was noted that, the elastic moduli was increased with increasing samarium ions in the fabricated glasses. The microhardness, thermal expansion coefficient, and Debye temperature was also obtained and increased with the supply of Sm⁺³ ions. Phy-X/PSD, MCNP5, and X-Com programs were employed to explore radiation shielding features for the photon energies, and Phy-X/ZeXTRa program for the charged particles. The mass attenuation coefficients (μ_m), linear attenuation coefficient (μ_L), half-value layer HVL, tenth-value layer TVL, the mean free path (λ), effective atomic numbers Z_eff, Equivalent atomic number (Z_eq), the exposure buildup factor (EBF), the absorption buildup factor (EABF), and the effective atomic numbers Z_eff for (the alpha particle, electron, proton, and carbon ions) were calculated for glass samples. The calculated values by the XCOM, MCNP5 code Phy-X/PSD software at different energies from 0.015 MeV to 15 MeV. We found that an increase in the concentration of (Sm₂O₃) instead of (Li₂O) gives better shielding. So, the better shielding was to the sample (LCP4) for the photon energies the charged particles, and neutrons.