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Erbium-borate modified glass with lead and barium: new composite materials for gamma ray shielding

  • Aljawhara H. Almuqrin , M. I. Sayyed and Mohamed Elsafi ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: June 16, 2025

Abstract

This research prepared novel glasses of (20 + x)BaO + (19 + y)PbO2 + (59-x-y)B2O3 + 2Er2O3, since x and y = 0, 2, 4, 6 mol% via melt-quenching and the gamma-ray shielding capability was determined by experimental and theoretical techniques. The experimental and Phy-X LAC values are close, thus suggesting that investigation’s setup was accurate. As a result of the contents of BaO and PbO2 in sample BPBE-4 (x and y = 6 mol%) which has the highest amount as well as the highest density, the sample’s linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) value is consistently the highest throughout the energy level. This indicates a strong attenuating power. Whereas, sample BPBE-1 (x and y = 0 mol%) shows the lowest LACs both theoretical and experimental values owing to the lowest concentrations of BaO and PbO2 mole percentage in its structure. The three radiation shielding layers, half value layer (HVL), tenth value layer (TVL) and mean free path (MFP) at 0.662 MeV for the sample BPBE-1 are 1.757, 5.836, and 2.535 cm respectively. For sample BPBE-4, it shows the lowest values for radiation shielding layers (1.519, 5.045, and 2.191 cm for HVL, TVL, and MFP) making it the best shielding material.


Corresponding author: Mohamed Elsafi, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21511, Egypt, E-mail:

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2025R2), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  3. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  4. Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.

  5. Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  6. Research funding: None declared.

  7. Data availability: Not applicable.

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Received: 2025-02-03
Accepted: 2025-05-12
Published Online: 2025-06-16
Published in Print: 2025-09-25

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