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

This work investigates the impact of BaO, PbO2, and Gd2O3 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 Gd2O3 glass sample, ranging from 0.89 (0.5 cm thickness) to 0.73 (1.5 cm thickness). Moreover, with more BaO, PbO2, and Gd2O3 content added to the glasses, the TF decreases, indicating an enhancement in the efficiency of the glasses’ radiation protection with the introduction of BaO, PbO2, and Gd2O3. 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, PbO2, and Gd2O3 contents to the glasses. At 0.122 MeV, the free Gd2O3 glass’s half value layer value is 0.098 cm, while the tenth value layer is 0.325 cm.