Experimental study of gamma-ray attenuation capability of B2O3-ZnO-Na2O-Fe2O3 glass system

In the present work, a glass system with developed composition consisting of B₂O₃, ZnO, Na₂O and Fe₂O₃ samples has been investigated. Glass samples were prepared using the melt quenching method and the density of the system was measured using Archimedes' principle. Spectroscopic analysis using a gamma source and a high-purity germanium detector at four energies of 0.0595, 0.6617, 1.173, and 1.333 MeV emitted from Am-241, Cs-137, and Co-60 were used to determine the attenuation parameters of present glass composites. The sample containing 45 B₂O₃ + 10 Na₂O + 40 ZnO + 5 Fe₂O₃ (coded BNZF-4) had the highest mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) value at all the energies discussed compared to the other composites. Whoever, the BNZF-1 sample had the lowest value at all ranges of energies. The transmission factors (TF, %) of the manufactured samples were calculated, at 0.0595 MeV (TF, %) values are 32.6429 and 6.4612 for samples BNZF-1 and BNZF-4, respectively. The statistical results demonstrated significantly better to increase the ZnO concentration in the sample, where the percentage of zinc oxide inside the prepared glass samples has the following direction BNZF -4 > BNZF -3 > BNZF -2 > BNZF -1. The significance of this study is that transparent, environmentally harmless glass composites with relatively high density have been prepared that can be used as shielding materials against gamma rays, especially at low energies.