The direct effect of Er₂O₃on bismuth barium telluro borate glasses for nuclear security applications

TLDR

The study investigates the nuclear radiation shielding performance of 20TeO₂-(30–x)B₂O₃–30BaO + 20Bi₂O₃–xEr₂O₃ glass system. The authors employed MCNPX simulations and SRIM calculations, along with mass‑attenuation‑coefficient analysis and G‑P fitting, to evaluate gamma, proton, and fast‑neutron shielding properties of six glass compositions. BTBE6 glass with the highest Er₂O₃ content exhibited the best nuclear radiation shielding performance.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the nuclear radiation shielding performance of 20TeO2-(30–x)B2O3−30BaO + 20Bi2O3−xEr2O3 glass system. The MCNPX code (version 2.6.0) is used to determine the shielding parameters and the dependence with the composition of each glass, as well as the influence of Er3+ additive. A wide-range of nuclear radiation shielding investigation for gamma-ray, proton particles, fast neutrons have been studied for six different types of glasses. The calculated values for mass attenuation coefficients (μm) were utilized to determine other vital shielding properties against gamma-ray radiation. Furthermore, some of the investigated parameters have been determined by using SRIM code and special calculation methods such as G-P fitting parameters for EBF and EABF calculation. The results showed that BTBE6 with the highest Er2O3 additive had a satisfactory capacity in nuclear radiation shielding.