Gamma-rays shielding properties of xPbO:(100  x)B 2 O 3 glasses system at 662 keV K. Kirdsiri a , J. Kaewkhao b, * , A. Pokaipisit c , W. Chewpraditkul a , P. Limsuwan a a Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok 10140, Thailand b Glass and Materials Science Research Unit (GMSRU), Faculty of Science and Technology Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, Nakorn Pathom 73000, Thailand c Applied Optics and Laser Laboratory, Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, CHE, 328 Si Ayutthaya Rd., Bangkok 10400, Thailand article info Article history: Received 2 February 2009 Received in revised form 23 June 2009 Accepted 26 June 2009 Available online 8 August 2009 abstract The mass attenuation coefficients, total interaction cross-sections and effective atomic numbers of xPbO:(100  x)B 2 O 3 (where 30 6 x 6 70% weight) glass system have been investigated on the basis of the mixture rule. The results are good agreement with the theoretical values, calculated by WinXCom. Mass attenuation coefficients were increased with increase PbO content, due to increase effective atomic number of glass samples, which increase probability of photoelectric absorption in glass. However, Compton scattering gives dominant contribution to the total mass attenuation coefficients for studied glass samples. Their shielding properties of glass samples are also better than ordinary shielding con- cretes and commercial window glass which can be used with advantage as transparent in visible region. These results are indicating the potential of glasses in radiation shielding materials. Crown Copyright Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction With increasing use of gamma-ray active isotopes in industry, medicine and agriculture, it has now become necessary to study shielding properties in various materials of technological and bio- logical importance. There is away a need to develop material, which can be used under harsh conditions of nuclear radiation exposure and can act as shielding materials (Singh et al., 2006). For nuclear radiation shielding, a larger quantity of shielding mate- rial is required, therefore, study of propagation flux of radiation flux in shielding materials is essential requirement for shield design. Major mass of nuclear radiation shielding consist of layers of different concretes with different compositions and densities, but considerable variations in water content in concretes add uncer- tainly in calculation of attenuation coefficient and related shielding parameters (Singh et al., 2004). Moreover they are also opaque to visible light. Materials to be used for shield design should have homogeneity of density and composition. Glasses are promising materials in this regard. Several glasses have been developed for nuclear engineering applications because they accomplish the dou- ble task of allowing visibility while absorbing radiations like gam- ma-rays and neutron, thus protection observer (Singh et al., 2002, 2004). A good shielding glass should have high value of interaction cross-section and at the same time, mechanical and optical proper- ties must be studied. Study of the fundamentals of radiation interactions with mate- rials has become an important research data for investigation. Data on the attenuation coefficient of X-rays and gamma-rays in matter is required for many scientific, engineering and medical applica- tions. Gamma-rays and X-rays attenuations have been studied for biological materials (Chitralekha et al., 2005; Gowda et al., 2005; Icelli et al., 2004; Manohara and Hanagodimath, 2007; Midg- ley, 2005; Sandhu et al., 2002), elements (Murty et al., 2001; Murty and Devan, 2001, 2004), alloys (Akkurt et al., 2005; Angelone et al., 2001; El-Kateb et al., 2000; Icelli et al., 2005a,b; Murty et al., 2000) and compound (Baltas et al., 2007; Bhandal and Singh, 1995; Icelli et al., 2003, 2004, 2005a,b; Icelli and Erzeneoglu, 2004; Khanna et al., 1996; Shivaramu and Ramprasath, 2000; Singh et al., 1996, 2003, 2005; Turgut et al., 2005). Most of the previous measure- ments of attenuation coefficients and related shielding parameters have been performed on the materials in their solid and crystalline form (Baltas et al., 2005, 2007; Cevik et al., 2005; Kaewkhao et al., 2006, 2008; Nair et al., 2006), using various techniques. Singh et al. (2006) investigate molar mass, mass attenuation coefficients and half value layer (HVL) of PbO–BaO–B 2 O 3 glass system at 511, 662, and 1275 keV, and compare experimental value with theoret- ical ones. The results found that the good agreement between experiment and theory with uncertainty less than 3%. The other work of Singh et al. (2004) comparative study of lead borate and bismuth lead borate glass for gamma-rays shielding materials. This results show that effect of replacing lead by bismuth in shielding properties in borate glass. Effective atomic number of a composite material is a very useful parameter for technology, nuclear industry, and radiation dosime- try and in many fields of scientific applications. This parameter has 0306-4549/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2009.06.019 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +66 2 435 9255; fax: +66 2 435 9255. E-mail address: mink110@hotmail.com (J. Kaewkhao). Annals of Nuclear Energy 36 (2009) 1360–1365 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Annals of Nuclear Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anucene