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In this research paper, we studied the optical and nuclear shielding efficiency of newly developed BGO glasses with the following compositions (in wt%): 32Bi 2 O 3 –68GeO 2 , 42Bi 2 O 3 –58GeO 2 , 47Bi 2 O 3 –53GeO 2 , 52Bi 2 O–48GeO 2 , 62Bi 2 O 3 –38GeO 2. BGO glasses were prepared by traditional melt quenching method. To obtain the band gap values of fabricated BGO glasses, optical absorption spectra were used for evaluation of optical properties. The mass attenuation coefficients (μ/ρ) were achieved for prepared glasses at 0.015–15 MeV photon energies employing MCNPX Monte Carlo code and WinXcom program. Moreover, broad-range of nuclear shielding parameters for gamma ray, neutrons and charged particles such as mass attenuation coefficient, half value layer, effective atomic number, buildup factors, mass stopping powers, projected ranges, fast neutron removal cross sections and damage factors were calculated. The refractive index is calculated from E opt , As Bi 2 O 3 concentration is enhanced, E opt is also increased as well as the optical electronegativity and consequently the refractive index. In addition, the results showed that BIGE5 glass sample with highest Bi 2 O 3 contribution has excellent nuclear radiation shielding ability among the other fabricated glass samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the effect of high effective atomic number (Z eff) materials loading in polystyrene based thin-film Plastic Scintillators (PS). Thin plastic scintillator sheets have been loaded with high Z materials such as BaFBr:Eu, Gd 2 O 2 S:Tb, Gd 2 O 3 , BaF 2 , CeO 2 and Bi 2 O 3. Polystyrene based PS sheets of 250 ± 50 μ m thickness have been prepared by dissolving predetermined quantities of polystyrene, 2,5-Diphenyloxazole (PPO) and 1,4-bis(5-phenyl-2-oxazolyl) benzene (POPOP) in the p-xylene solvent. High Z eff material powders of 23 μ m size are mixed in the plastic scintillator solution and coated over the cellulose acetate-based transparency sheets. The dried films are peeled off, and their photoluminescence, radioluminescence, pulse height spectrum and response to alpha, beta, gamma and neutron radiations are studied by adopting suitable methods. The high Z eff materials for loading in PS are selected based on their physical properties like refractive index, bandgap, Z eff , Photoluminescence (PL) properties. While the composite scintillator loaded with 14.3 wt% of BaFBr:Eu2+ showed significant increase compare to other high Z materials. The loading concentration has been optimized as 14.3 wt% from the BaFBr:Eu2+ studies. Most of the composite scintillators showed improvement in radioluminescence and pulse height spectra for different radiations. • Polystyrene based thin plastic scintillator have been prepared by solvent-based fabrication method. • Thin composite plastic scintillator are studied with high Z eff material loading. • High Z eff material loaded composite scintillators showed enhanced response to radiation. • BaFBr:Eu loaded composite PS has shown the best promising result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]