Photon radiation shielding properties of germanate glass systems containing Bi2O3, PbF2, and B2O3

In this study, we studied the gamma radiation shielding properties of ternary germanate glass systems containing Bi2O3, PbF2, and B2O3. The glass samples were synthesized by using the traditional melt-quenching method. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) measurements were performed to confirm the glassy nature of the synthesized materials. A narrow-beam transmission geometry equipped with a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector was used to measure experimentally measurable shielding parameters of the samples, like mass attenuation coefficient, linear attenuation coefficient, half-value layer, and effective atomic number. Measurements were performed at gamma-ray energies of 662, 1173, and 1332 keV emitted from Cs-137 and Co-60 radioactive sources. Additionally, all the above parameters were also calculated theoretically in the .015-15 MeV energy region by employing the WinXCOM software to verify the experimental findings. The experimental and theoretical results were found to be in good agreement. The results showed that the 70Ge20Bi10Pb glass system has competitive shielding properties among the studied glass systems and could be a good candidate for radiation shielding applications.