Optically transparent glass modified with metal oxides for X-rays and gamma rays shielding material

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hussein, Khalid I.^{a; b} | Alqahtani, Mohammed S.^{a; *} | Grelowska, Iwona^c | Reben, Manuela^c | Afifi, Hesham^d | Zahran, Heba^{e; f; g} | Yaha, I. S.^{e; f; g} | Yousef, El Sayed^{e; f}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Radiological Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia | [b] Department of Medical Physics and Instrumentation, National Cancer Institute, University of Gezira, Wad Medani, Sudan | [c] Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, AGH – University of Science and Technology, al. Mickiewicza, Cracow, Poland | [d] Ultarsonic Laboratory, National Institute for Standards, Tersa Street El-haram, El-Giza, Egypt | [e] Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS), King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia | [f] Physics Department, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia | [g] Nanoscience Laboratory for Environmental and Bio-Medical Applications (NLEBA), Semiconductor Lab., Metallurgical Lab. 2 Physics Department, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Roxy, Cairo, Egypt

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Mohammed S. Alqahtani, Department of Radiological Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia. Tel.: +966 505 47 401: E-mail: mosalqhtani@kku.edu.sa.

Abstract: BACKGROUND:Metal oxide glass composites have attracted huge interest as promising shielding materials to replace toxic, heavy, and costly conventional shielding materials. OBJECTIVE:In this work, we evaluate shielding effectiveness of four novel tellurite-based glasses samples doped with oxide metals (namely, A, B, C, and D, which are 75TeO2- 10P2O5- 10ZnO- 5PbF2- 0.24Er2O3 ; 70TeO2- 10P2O5- 10ZnO- 5PbF2 -5MgO- 0.24Er2O3; 70TeO2- 10P2O5- 10ZnO- 5PbF2- 5BaO- 0.24Er2O3 ; and 70TeO2- 10P2O5-10ZnO- 5PbF2- 5SrO; respectively) by assessing them through a wide range of ionizing radiation energies (0.015–15 MeV). METHODS:The radiation-shielding parameters including mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path, (MFP), effective atomic number (Zeff), effective electron number (Neff), and the transmission factor are computed in the selected range of ionizing radiation energies. Furthermore, the proposed samples were compared with the most common shielding glass materials. The optical parameters viz oscillator, dispersion energy, nonlinear refractive indices, molar, and electronic polarizability of these transparent glasses are reported at different wavelengths. RESULTS:The results show that the proposed samples have considerable effectiveness as transparent shielding glass materials at various ionizing radiation energies. They can be employed for effective radiation-protection outcomes. Sample C demonstrated slightly better shielding properties than the other samples with differences of 1.33%, 4.6%, and 4.2% for samples A, B, and D, respectively. A similar trend is observed regarding the mass attenuation coefficients. Nevertheless, sample B shows better optical properties than the other prepared glass samples. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings indicate that the proposed novel glass samples have good shielding properties and optical characteristics, which can pave the way for their utilization as transparent radiation-shielding materials in medical and industrial applications.

Keywords: Optical parameters, glasses, half-value layer, mass attenuation coefficient, mean free path, radiation protection

DOI: 10.3233/XST-200780

Journal: Journal of X-Ray Science and Technology, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 331-345, 2021