Enhancement of nuclear radiation shielding and mechanical properties of YBiBO3 glasses using La2O3

Abstract

In this study, nuclear radiation shielding and rigidity parameters of Y (0.1-x)B0.6Bi1.8O3La2x glassy system were investigated in order to determine it's suitability for use as nuclear radiation shielding materials. Therefore, a group of bismuth borate glass samples with La2O3 additive were synthesized using the technique of melt quenching. According to the results, the increase of the La2O3 additive increases the density of the glass samples and the mass attenuation coefficient (mu(m)) values, whereas the half-value layer (HVL) and mean free path (MFP) values decrease. The effective atomic number (Z(eff)) is also enhanced with an increment of both mass removal cross section for neutron (Sigma(R)) and absorption neutron scattering cross section (sigma(abs)). In addition to the other parameters, rigidity parameter values were theoretically examined. The increase of La2O3 causes some other important magnitudes to increase. These are the average crosslink density, the number of bonds per unit volume, as well as the stretching force constant values of these glass samples. These results are in concordance with the increase of elastic moduli in terms of the Makishima-Mackenzie model. This model showed an increase in the rigidity of the glass samples as a function of La2O3. (C) 2019 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC.