Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2021) 136: 567
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01565-y

Regular Article

Investigation of the structure and radiation shielding properties of borate/Y₂O₃ glasses

¹ Physics department, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O.Box:2014, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia
² Physics Department, College of Science and Arts, Jouf University, P.O. Box 756, Al-Gurayyat, Saudi Arabia
³ Physics and Engineering Mathematics Department, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Menoufia University, 32952, Menouf, Egypt

^b taha.hemida@yahoo.com

Received: 22 February 2021
Accepted: 13 May 2021
Published online: 21 May 2021

Abstract

Recently, borate glasses doped with rare earth ions have attracted increasing attention due to their higher attenuation of ionizing radiations. In this work, Zinc Sodium borate glasses 55 B₂O₃–10 ZnO–x Y₂O₃–(35-x) Na₂O mol.% (where x = 0, 2 and 4 mol.%) have been prepared using melting quenching procedure. The effect of replacement of Na₂O with Y₂O₃ on the structural and optical properties of the prepared glasses were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. The structural analysis performed via XRD indicates that no changes in the amorphous state of the glass samples due to the addition of Y₂O₃. Increasing the Y₂O₃ content increases the density of the glass samples. Radiation shielding parameters such as the mass attenuation coefficients MAC, half-value layer (HVL), tenth value layer (TVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z_eff), effective electron density (N_eff), and equivalent atomic number (Z_eq) were estimated at different energy regions using Phy-X database software. The Z_eff, N_eff, Z_eq and C_eff values increase with increasing the Y₂O₃ content. The increase in Y₂O₃ content decreases the values of HVL and MFP. The neutron attenuation results show that the neutrons absorption and the fast neutron removal cross-sections increases with increasing the content of Y₂O₃.