Radiation shielding performance of lead-borate glasses with rare-earth oxides: a comparative analysis

M.I. Sayyed; Aljawhara H. Almuqrin

doi:10.1515/ract-2025-0024

Article

Radiation shielding performance of lead-borate glasses with rare-earth oxides: a comparative analysis

M.I. Sayyed and Aljawhara H. Almuqrin

Published/Copyright: May 6, 2025

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From the journal Radiochimica Acta Volume 113 Issue 6

Abstract

Lead-borate glasses with Eu, Y, La, or Sm oxides were investigated for their radiation shielding capabilities across a broad range of energies. Due to the glasses’ varying content, each sample had varying densities, with the Sm glass having the highest density and the Y glass having the least. At lower energies, the MAC values followed the Y₂O₃ < La₂O₃ < Sm₂O₃ < Eu₂O₃ order, while at higher energies the MACs are practically identical. The glasses’ LACs showed an inverse energy relationship, such as those of the Y glass which are 0.946, 0.439, and 0.293 cm⁻¹ at 0.284, 0.511, and 0.826 MeV, respectively. The Z_eff of the glasses are in the order of Eu > Sm > La > Y, which corresponds to the relative order of the sample-based additives’ atomic numbers. The RPEs of the glasses revealed the Sm glass to have slightly greater protection efficiency than the Eu glass, while increasing the thickness of the sample greatly improved the shielding effectiveness. The ratio of the reference glass’s HVL to each of a set of compared glasses’ LAC showed that the Sm glass is a viable glass for radiation shielding applications.

Keywords: rare earth oxides; density; melt quenching method; effective atomic number

Corresponding author: M.I. Sayyed, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Isra University, Amman, Jordan, E-mail: dr.mabualssayed@gmail.com

Research ethics: The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
Informed consent: Not applicable.
Author contributions: Material preparation, data collection, analysis, funding and manuscript as a whole (writing the draft manuscript and revision the final form) were prepared by the authors of the manuscript M.I Sayyed and Aljawhara H. Almuqrin.
Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
Conflict of interest: The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
Research funding: The authors express their gratitude to Princess Nourah bint. Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number. (PNURSP2025R2), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman. University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Data availability: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Received: 2025-02-17

Accepted: 2025-04-13

Published Online: 2025-05-06

Published in Print: 2025-06-26

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ract-2025-0024

Keywords for this article

rare earth oxides; density; melt quenching method; effective atomic number