Understanding radiation shielding performance through a comparative study of half value layer in novel and preexisting silicate glasses

This study focuses on evaluating the PbO-SiO 2 -B 2 O 3 -Na 2 O glasses' radiation shielding ability against various previously tested materials to gain an in-depth understanding of the glass system's attenuation capabilities. The glass system is composed of xPbO-(30-x)SiO 2 -50B 2 O 3 -20Na 2 O, where x = 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 mol%. As a standardized measure of comparison, the samples' half value layer (HVL) values were chosen to understand the space-efficiency of each material. The values were compared at 0.356 MeV, an energy shared across all the investigated materials. When evaluating the HVL values, the study found that glass system with higher PbO content had a lower HVL, meaning that the glass with 25 mol% HVL had the most desirable shielding thickness at 0.356 MeV. The investigated glasses have lower HVL values than calcium-lithium-borosilicate glasses doped with praseodymium oxide, and glasses containing SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , Li 2 O, MgO, ZnO, ZrO 2 , and SnO 2 at varying concentrations. Additionally, when comparing the glasses against the various other materials, it was found that the tested materials overall performed well, especially those with greater PbO content.