Influence of high-Z oxide content on gamma-ray attenuation in tellurite-molybdate glass matrices

A collection of glasses (G1-G4), specifically TeO₂-MoO₃-SrO-BaO glasses, was developed using the melt-quenching method to assess their gamma-ray shielding effectiveness. The glasses were formulated by substituting TeO₂ (60-40 mol%) with MoO₃ (0-20 mol%) in the glass composition, while keeping SrO and BaO constant at 15 and 25 mol%, respectively. The density measurements were in the range of 6.0992 to 5.7864 g/cm³, which decreased when higher amounts of MoO₃ were utilized. The measured linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) decreased from 0.459 cm^-1 to 0.303 cm^-1 as the photon energy (0.662-1.332 MeV) increased, while the half-value layer (HVL) increased from 1.51 to 2.29 cm, confirming that attenuation becomes less effective at the higher energies. The Radiation protection efficiency (RPE) from the study demonstrated a general range of 82% (G1) to 65% (G4) for the studied energies, which signifies the increase in TeO₂ shielding characteristic properties due to density and effective atomic number in the glass. The experiments highlighted the produced TeO₂-MoO₃-SrO-BaO glasses as possible lead-free, clairvoyant materials in shielding of gamma-rays.