Development of barium borosilicate glasses for radiation shielding materials using rice husk ash as a silica source

• Barium borosilicate glasses using RHA were prepared.
• Radiation shielding and optical properties were investigated.
• Shorter MFP how that glass samples can be used as radiation shielding materials and high optical transparency.

In this work, barium borosilicate glasses produced by using rice husk ash in the compositions xBaO:(80-x)B2O3:20RHA (where x = 30, 35, 40 and 45 wt%) were prepared by melt quenching technique and investigated for their radiation shielding properties. The mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and effective electron densities of the glasses were found to increase with the increasing of BaO concentration and the decreasing of gamma rays energy. The glasses in this work exhibited good radiation shielding properties by providing shorter mean free paths (MFP) than all commercial windows; ordinary, hematite and Ilmanite-limonite concretes. The shorter MFP in the glasses with higher BaO in glass matrices reflects the better gamma rays shielding properties. The radiation shielding results and optical transparency of the glasses indicate that the glasses in the present study can be used as radiation shielding materials with higher transparency.