Gamma radiation shielding effectiveness of PbO₂ doped borosilicate glasses

In this study, the integration of PbO₂ into a borosilicate glass system was investigated for enhanced radiation shielding performance. Several glasses with varying PbO₂ concentrations (31, 33, 35 and 37 mol%) were prepared using the melt-quenching method. The density of the glasses increases from 4.579 to 5.044 g/cm³ as a result of increase the PbO₂ content. The radiation attenuation factors were experimentally determined at 0.059, 0.662, 1.173 and 1.333 MeV, using HPGe detector. The results indicate that increasing PbO₂ content notably influences the mass attenuation coefficient and the effective atomic number. The tenth value layer (TVL) increased significantly with rising energy levels. For the glass sample containing 31 mol% PbO₂, the TVL increased from 0.177 cm at 0.059 MeV to 5.325 cm at 0.662 MeV, and to 9.094 cm at 1.333 MeV. Similarly, for the glass with 37 mol% PbO₂, the TVL increased from 0.146 cm at 0.059 MeV to 4.733 cm at 0.662 MeV, and to 8.231 cm at 1.333 MeV. The results also showed that PbO₂ has an inverse effect on the TVL, where adding more PbO₂ leads to a decrease in the TVL. At 0.662 MeV, increasing the PbO₂ content from 31 to 37 mol% reduces the TVL by approximately 11.12%. The transmission factor (TF) for the glass with a thickness of 2 cm was investigated, and results showed that the TF is nearly 0 at 0.059 MeV, indicating that the glass provides complete shielding at this low energy. The TF increases with rising energy, reaching 37.8-42.11% at 0.662 MeV, indicating that more photons penetrate the glass as the energy increases.