Bismuth modified shielding properties of zinc boro-tellurite glasses

In the present work, the gamma ray shielding properties of tellurium oxide based quaternary glasses in the system TeO2-B2O3-Bi2O3-ZnO have been investigated. By using WinXCom software, mass attenuation coefficients (μ/ρ), half value layers (HVL), effective atomic numbers (Zeff) and electron densities (Ne) for total photon interaction in the energy range of 1 keV-100 GeV were calculated. The values of μ/ρ and Zeff found increase with an increase in Bi2O3 content. The obtained results of the selected glass systems have been compared, in terms of μ/ρ and HVL with commercial window glasses, some common shielding concretes, and other glass systems in order to test the validity of these glass systems with respect to the radiation shielding. The shielding effectiveness of the selected glasses is found comparable to that of common ones; which indicates that the tellurium glasses may be developed as gamma ray shielding materials.