Abstract
Investigations have been made on the mechanical and gamma-ray attenuation properties of the zinc bismuth-borate ternary glass system with the chemical formula (70-x)Bi2O3-xB(2)O(3)-30ZnO, where x = 20 (S1), 25 (S2), 30 (S3), 40 (S4), 45 (S5), and 50 (S6) mol%. Makishima-Mackenzie model and Phy-X/PSD software were used to accomplish this goal. Our research showed that the packing density (Vt) and dissociation energy (Gt) values reduced from S1 glass sample (with B2O3 = 20 mol% and Bi2O3 = 50 mol%) to S6 glass sample (with B2O3 = 50 mol% and Bi2O3 = 20 mol%), respectively, from 0.522 to 0.352 and from 31.53 kJ/cm(3) to 26.97 kJ/cm(3). By increasing the amount of B2O3 in the glasses, the efficiency of their mechanical features was reduced. The S1 glass sample's linear (mu) and mass attenuation (mu(m)) coefficients had the highest values among the glass materials examined, i.e., (mu, mu(m))(S6) < (mu, mu(m))(S5) < (mu, mu(m))(S4) < (mu, mu(m))(S3) < (mu, mu(m))(S2) < (mu, mu(m))(S1). The S1 glass sample exhibits the lowest values for half value layer (T-0.5) and mean free path (lambda) of all the examined glasses. Consequently, (T-0.5, lambda )(S6) > (T-0.5, lambda )(S5) > (T-0.5, lambda )(S4) > (T-0.5, lambda )(S3) > (T-0.5, lambda )(S2) > (T-0.5, lambda )(S1). The analyzed glasses' effective atomic numbers (Z(eff)) follow the same trend for mass and linear attenuation coefficients. Our results show that the values of exposure (EBF) and energy absorption (EABF) accumulation factors decreased with increasing Bi2O3 and lowering B2O3 reinforcement for all mean free path values (i.e., from 0.5 to 40 mfp). Results show that of all the glasses under study, the S1 glass sample has the best gamma-ray shielding properties.