Physical and radiation shielding properties of tantalum-zinc-sodium-borate glasses

Abstract

In this paper, the physical properties such as density, molar volume, oxygen packing density, oxygen molar volume of Zinc-Sodium-Borate glass system with different amounts of Tantalum oxide have been evaluated. In order to study the radiation shielding competence of the Tantalum-Zinc-Sodium-Borate glasses the mass attenuation coefficients and Half Value Layer (HVL) were calculated for γ-ray photon energies of 59.54, 122, 279, 356, 511, 662, 835 KeV. A comparison of the radiation shielding properties of Tantalum-Zinc-Sodium-Borate glasses has been made in terms of their Half Value Layer (HVL) with some standard radiation shielding concrete. On the basis of the obtained results, it has been reported that the Tantalum-Zinc-Sodium-Borate glasses possess satisfactory radiation properties and could be useful for the radiation shielding applications.