Radiation shielding properties of PNCKM bioactive glasses at nuclear medicine energies

Abstract

A new bioactive glass system with the structure of P2O5-Na2O-CaO-K2O-MgO (PNCKM) was prepared and assessed for use in radiation shielding applications. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope measurements were achieved for the prepared glasses. Gamma radiation shielding parameters such as mass attenuation coefficient (mu/rho), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), and mean free path (MFP) were investigated by using Geant4 toolkit at nuclear medicine energies namely; 0.083 MeV emitted from Tl-201, 0.140 MeV emitted from Tc-99, and 0.284, 0.365, 0.637, and 0.723 MeV emitted from I-13(1). The obtained results are confirmed via the newly developed Phy-X/PSD program. At 0.365 MeV, the Z(eff) values were 10.31, 10.53, 10.76, 10.99, and 11.24 for PNCKM1, PNCKM2, PNCKM3, PNCKM4, and PNCKM5, respectively. The gamma shielding features of the PNCKM glasses were compared with those of commercial and conventional shielding materials in terms of half value layer (HVL). Moreover, neutron shielding features such as removal cross section (Sigma(R)) were calculated for the prepared glasses and compared with those of standard bioactive glasses. The prepared glasses can be useful to design superior radiation shielding materials as well as to optimize the fabrication of low cost and environmentally friendly shields.