Abstract
This paper focuses on the evaluation of the radiation attenuation properties of 15CaF(2)-10CaO-5B(2)O(3)-(65-x)P2O5-xNiO-5BaO (where 0 <= x <= 1.0 mol%) bioactive glasses. The radiation attenuation features of these glasses were investigated by determining different factors including mass attenuation coefficient (mu/p), exposure and absorption buildup factors (EBF and EABF), neutron removal cross section (NRCS), and effective atomic number (Z(eff)) for photon, proton, and carbon ion interactions. Geant4 toolkit and Phy-X program were employed for simulations and calculations procedures. The results revealed that NiO content in the studied bioactive glasses has a significant effect on photon interaction and an insignificant effect on the charged particle interactions. The Z(eff) values of the studied glasses were observed in the range of 18-20 for photon interaction, 10.7-10.9 for proton interaction, and 10.0-10.7 for carbon ion interaction. The NRCS values were 0.087, 0.088, 0.089, 0.090, and 0.091 cm(-1) for x = 0, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 mol%, respectively. The studied bioactive glasses showed a good ability to attenuate gamma radiation at energies of medical applications.