Search

This study aims to investigate the utility of using 15PbF2–(60x)TeO2–25WO3–xNd2O3 (0.1 ≥ x ≥ 1.5) glasses in the nuclear shielding applications for mixed radiation fields at energies ranging from 15 keV to 15 MeV. The effect of Nd3+ ions on gamma attenuation properties of the present glass system was discussed in detail. The radiation attenuation features were investigated for the present glass system by using Monte Carlo radiation transport simulation via Geant4 toolkit. The simulation results were theoretically approved by using Phy-X approach over the entire considered energy range. The obtained results indicate that the values of Zeff and Neff were both highest in the in the τ/ρ dominated energies due to the atomic number dependence of the cross sections of the τ/ρ absorption processes. Moreover, FNRCS values were 0.1152, 0.1152, 0.1153, and 0.1153 cm−1 for PWTN1, PWTN2, PWTN3, and PWTN4 respectively. Finally, an extensive comparative study is also presented between the studied glass system and standard traditional shielding materials. The study suggests PWTN4 is the best photon shield amongst the studied PWTN-glasses.

In the current study, 10PbO-xSrO-(90-x)B2O3 (x is between 20 and 45 mol% with a step of 5 mol%) glasses with SrO inserted in various proportions were surveyed in terms of nuclear shielding qualities. Gamma- ray shielding features of the glasses encoded BPS1-BPS6 were investigated in the energy range of 0.015–15 MeV. The mass attenuation coefficients (MAC) of BPS glasses were composed via GEANT4 simulation codes and the accuracy of the outcomes was checked by WinXCOM software. The MAC values of BPS1 and BPS6 glasses were obtained between 14.934–0.024 g/cm2 and 19.047–0.029 g/cm2 in the energy range of 0.015–15 MeV. Further, other essential parameters, MFP, Zeff, Zeq, EABF, and EBF were derived from the MAC values for the same energies. It was noted that the MFP values of the BPS6 glass are higher than some commercial glasses and ordinary concrete at chosen energy intervals. According to the results achieved, EBF, EABF, and MFP values decline as the percentage of SrO in the BPS glasses increases. The highest Zeff was achieved by BPS6 (with 45% SrO), while the lowest Zeff was obtained by BPS1 (with 20% SrO). Finally, fast neutron removal cross-sections (ΣR), Mass Stopping Power (MSP), and Projected Range (PR) values were computed to investigate the fast neutron, proton and alpha shielding properties of SrO added BPS glasses. It is seen that the ΣR values of BPS glasses vary in the range of 0.126 cm−1–0.117 cm−1. The addition of SrO in the glass leads to reduce the ranges of charged and uncharged particles. According to the outcomes achieved, BPS6 glass with 45% SrO additives can be regarded as an effective radiation shield used in many technological disciplines.

In this work, the Klein–Nishina (K–N) approach was used to evaluate the electronic, atomic, and energy-transfer cross sections of four elements, namely, zinc (Zn), tellurium (Te), barium (Ba), and bismuth (Bi), for different photon energies (0.662 MeV, 0.835 MeV, 1.170 MeV, 1.330 MeV, and 1.600 MeV). The obtained results were compared with the Monte Carlo method (Geant4 simulation) in terms of mass attenuation and mass energy-transfer coefficients. The results show that the K–N approach and Geant4 simulations are in good agreement for the entire energy range considered. As the photon energy increased from 0.662 MeV to 1.600 MeV, the values of the energy-transfer cross sections decreased from 81.135 cm2 to 69.184 cm2 in the case of Bi, from 50.832 cm2 to 43.344 cm2 for Te, from 54.742 cm2 to 46.678 cm2 for Ba, and from 29.326 cm2 to 25.006 cm2 for Zn. The obtained results and the detailed information of the attenuation properties for the studied elements would be helpful in developing a new generation of shielding materials against gamma rays.

55 B2O3 – 15 SiO2 – 30 Na2O: x WO3, (x ranging from 0 to 5 wt%) glass composites were prepared according to the melt-quenching procedure. The prepared samples were characterized via X-ray diffraction and broad band dielectric spectroscopy (viz., dielectric constant (e1), tanδ and AC conductivity (σAC) over a wide range of frequency and temperature). No sharp peaks were shown in the XRD pattern and is evidence of the amorphous nature of the samples. It turns out that the values of e1 and e2 are increasing at higher temperatures particularly at lower frequencies. The energy barrier height, WM values decreased as 0.27, 0.25 and 0.22 while showed value of 0.29 eV for 5.0 wt% WO3. In the dielectric modulus plots, two relaxation processes are found especially on the higher temperature side. It also shifted a higher frequency with increasing temperature. The values of exponent s have been found to lie between 0.48 and 0.74, which confirms that the conduction mechanism in the glass samples follows the correlated barrier hopping model. By calculating the activation energy associated with the relaxation processes and DC conductivity, it was found that the values are close, which indicates that the same charges contribute to the two processes.

This work investigates the effects of TeO2 and B2O3 on photon, neutron, and charged particle transmission properties of Bi2O3-BaO-LiF glass system. Photon transmission parameters were obtained via narrow beam setup simulation via FLUKA and those obtained from experimentally proved XCOM calculations. The attenuation factors of $$ {\left(\raisebox{1ex}{$\mu $}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$\rho $}\right.\right)}_{IS} $$ and $$ {\left(\raisebox{1ex}{$\mu $}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$\rho $}\right.\right)}_{PP} $$ control the value of $$ \raisebox{1ex}{$\mu $}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$\rho $}\right. $$ at energies greater than 1.5 MeV; however, the region of influence differs for both absorption processes. While $$ {\left(\raisebox{1ex}{$\mu $}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$\rho $}\right.\right)}_{IS} $$ peaks occur at 3 MeV, the influence of $$ {\left(\raisebox{1ex}{$\mu $}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$\rho $}\right.\right)}_{PP} $$ becomes appreciable at E > 5 MeV. The values of linear attenuation factor (μ) ranged from 0.2119–0.5283, 0.2085–0.5248, 0.1837–0.4676, 0.1639–0.4223, 0.1519–0.3971, 0.1370–0.3638, and 0.1222–0.3315 cm-1 as B2O3 increased from 0 to 60 mol % with step of 10, respectively. The spectra of projected range (R) of the ions and CSDA range of electrons show that the TSP of electrons in the glasses increases as B2O3 increased from 0 to 60 mol % for energy lower than 5 MeV; however, it reverses at 10 MeV. The ability of the present glass system for stopping the transmission of various radiation beams reveals its potential use for shielding applications in medical and nuclear facilities.

A quaternary glass system described by the composition 35Pb3O4–60SiO2–(5-x)ZnO–xWO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 5 mol%) was prepared via the ordinary method namely melt quenching. The amorphous state of this system was experimentally evaluated using X-ray diffraction. At room temperature, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was carried out to test the structure of each specimen by using the KBr technique for wavenumber of 4000–400 cm−1. The FTIR test demonstrated that structural units and connectivity of the modifier oxide tetrahedral increased, whereas non-bridging oxygen decreased as ZnO was substituted by WO3. The results of neutron transmission studies showed that 6 mm was the required thickness to reduce by half the intensity of the fast neutron beam; more specifically, the fast neutron transmission factor was 0.54, 0.53, 0.53, 0.51, and 0.49 for the prepared glass specimens G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5, respectively. For charged particles, the maximum range was observed in the high energy region (10 MeV) for all projectiles studied, with 8066.33 μm for electrons, 356.86 μm for protons, 39.30 μm for alpha particles, and 5.83 μm for carbon ions. The prepared glass system has promising features for use in various dosimetry and radiation protection applications at a neutron energy below 10 MeV.

The conventional technique has been used to prepare a quaternary glass based on the chemical composition 5Al2O3- $$(10+x)$$ Li2O- $$(70 - x)$$ B2O3-15TiO2 $$:(0\le x\le 25)$$ mol.%. The Fourier transform infrared spectrometer spectra were investigated for the structural change of these glasses. Ultraviolet spectroscopic at ambient temperature of the investigated glass system. The optical bandgap and refractive index of these glasses were decreased, while Urbach energy was increased. The polarizability and basicity of these glasses have been established. To demonstrate the influence of titanium oxide on dispersion parameters, these glasses were applied. Under controlled heating, the glass–ceramic was prepared and investigated using X-ray diffraction and mechanical characteristic. Glass–ceramic surface morphology has been examined by scanning electron microscope.

This work presents a detailed study on the effects of reducing PbO content on the elastic and radiation shielding properties of germanate glasses described by the chemical formula 50GeO2-(50-x)PbO-xZnO, where x between 0 and 50 mol % with step of 10. A theoretical analysis based on Makishima-Mackenzie’s theory (MM-theory) was employed to obtain the elastic moduli of the studied glass specimens. Moreover, the Monte Carlo simulations were applied via Geant4 platform to assess the radiation shielding ability of the GeO2-PbO-ZnO glass system by evaluating several fundamental properties such as gamma and neutron transmission factors, total cross sections, effective atomic numbers, 1/e penetration depths, and exposure buildup factors. We found that the bulk elastic modulus increased from 50.751 GPa to 85.389 GPa as the PbO content decreased from 50 mol% to 0. The results of the linear attenuation coefficient show that the cross sections of $${\left(\sigma \right)}_{PE}, {\left(\sigma \right)}_{CS}$$ , and $${\left(\sigma \right)}_{PP}$$ dominates the photon attenuation at 0.15 ≤ E $$\le$$ 0.08; 0.8

45S5 bioglass system is a sol-gel specifically composed of SiO2+CaO+Na2O+P2O5 that has superior features for bone regeneration. In this article, the effects of MgO addition (0, 1, 2, 3, and 5 mol %) on the radiation attenuation properties of 45S5 bioglass system were investigated. For photons beam, we determined the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), gamma dose rate (GDR), and effective atomic number (EAN). Moreover, the total stopping power and projectile range were calculated for charged particles such as beta (electron), proton (hydrogen ion), and alpha (helium ion). Finally, the attenuation properties of 45S5+MgO bioglass system were studied in detail for thermal and fast neutrons. The obtained results indicate that the maximum LAC was around 0.2175 cm−1 at 0.6 MeV for the studied bioglass system. The highest GDR was noted at 10 MeV in the distance of 1 mm with the value of 1.09 × 108 R/h for 45S5+MgO1 bioactive glass. For neutron attenuation, we found that the removal cross-section (RCS) values were 0.0894, 0.0896, 0.0898, 0.0901, and 0.0904 cm−1 for the studied bioactive glasses of 45S5+MgO1, 45S5+MgO2, 45S5+MgO3, 45S5+MgO4, and 45S5+MgO5, respectively. It was concluded that the MgO addition has an insignificant influence on the radiation attenuation properties of the 45S5 bioglass system.

In this work, the electrical and mechanical properties of 40B2O3+40PbO+ 20Li2O3+xZrO2 (where x = 0.0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1.5 wt%) were experimentally investigated. The electrical and dielectric data were measured in the temperature range of 20–300 °C. Based on Makishima–Mackenzie's model, a total of dissociation energy (Gt) and the ionic packing density (Vt) for the investigated specimens were calculated. Then, the mechanical features, including Poisson's ratio and elastic moduli, were calculated. It was found that Vt decreased in the range of 0.3708–0.3051 m3 mol−1, while the Gt was enhanced in the range of 34.74 × 106 - 35.8803 × 106 kJ m−3 as the ZrO2 content increased. Young's modulus changed from 25.7637 to 21.8953 GPa. At the same time, the shear modulus was found to change from 11.4460 to 10.4782 GPa. The bulk modulus varied from 11.464 to 8.0167 GPa; the longitudinal modulus varied from 26.7255 to 21.9877 GPa. The values of Poisson's ratio were found to change from 0.1254 to 0.0448. The electrical results revealed that the addition of ZrO2 minimized the electrical conductivity in the temperature range of 20–300 °C; besides, it maximized the activation energy.

For safe immobilization of nuclear waste, lead-iron phosphate glasses are promising as high-level commercial and defense materials. In this research article, the compositional, elastic, and gamma shielding properties of the glasses containing (80 − x)P2O5– xFe2O3–20PbO with x = 20, 25, 30, 35 mol% were reported. The compositional and elastic parameters including the micro-hardness of the investigated glass samples were obtained based on Makishima-Mackenzie’s theory (MM-theory) and R model. We found that the deviation between these two methods decreased as Fe2O3 concentrations increased from 20 to 35 mol %. Additionally, γ-ray attenuation properties of the P2O5– Fe2O3–PbO glass system were evaluated using Geant4 simulation toolkit. The simulation results were compared with the theoretical ones extracted from Py-MLBUF software. The obtained results reveal that the MACs of the glasses vary from 0.030 to 40.014 cm2/g for PFP-A, from 0.031 to 41.502 cm2/g for PFP-B, 0.031 to 43 cm2/g for PFP-C and from 0.031 to 44.400 cm2/g for PFP-D. Maximum Zeff values of present glasses are obtained at 0.10 MeV whereas minimum Zeff values are obtained at 1.5 MeV. Finally, the fundamental γ-ray attenuation properties of the P2O5– Fe2O3–PbO glass system are found to be comparable with those of traditional and commercial radiation shields such as RS-253-G18 and RS-360 commercial glasses, ordinary concrete, barite concrete and TBZP10 from scientific literature. The results indicated that MFPs of the investigated glasses are lower than those of RS-360 glass, but they are higher than those of barite concrete and TBZP10.

The techniques of melt-quenching have been used to generate 53B2O3—2NaF—27PbO – $$(20-x)$$ BaO— $$x$$ La2O3 $$(0\le x \ge 15) glass system$$ . XRD patterns have been established the amorphous character of glass samples. There is a clear evidence of the role of the La2O3 modifier in the glass network. The thermal characteristics have been identified to increase with an increase in La2O3 content. Increasing La2O3 increases the linear and non-linear optical bandgap energy and the Urbach energy. By adding La2O3 to the glass samples, the refractive index, molar polarizability, polarizability, and optical basicity increased. The bulk modulus and the glass transition temperature increased because of the increase in bond strength. The number of bonds per unit increased with the increase in La2O3 content because of the modifier character of La2O3 in the glass samples. Many optical parameters (e $$\boldsymbol{\infty }$$ ), (eo), $${\chi }^{(1)}$$ , $$\left({\chi }^{(3)}\right)$$ and $${(n}_{2})$$ as a function of linear and non-linear $${E}_{opt}$$ have been obtained. The extent of shielding in this article has been examined with the increment in La2O3 at the expense of BaO. The results correspond with similar studies conducted before.

Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), marked with the most used Positron Emission Tomography (PET) radiopharmaceutical Fluorine-18 (F-18), is a glucose analog and is taken to living cells through membrane glucose carriers. F-18 FDG involvement in tissue is proportional to glucose use. In many cancers, there is increased glucose use due to increased gluten expression and hexokinase activity. F-18 FDG PET is a proven method for diagnosis, staging, re-staging, and evaluation of treatment response in oncology. The purpose of this study is to find the effect of ionizing radiation on proteins in the mechanism of action of FDG and determine to Molecular mechanisms of F-18 FDG accumulation in metabolism. In the study, two different models were used together, the first method, the study was Molecular Docking method for modeling molecules deconstructed and the structure of FDG was energy minimized by utilizing the density functional theory, and the B3LYP functional was used with 6-311G basis set. The second method was the Monte Carlo method for modeling ionizing radiation interactive with the potential routes of FDG metabolism within the cell. It was determined that the Gibbs free energy (?G) change was compatible with the ionizing radiation factors for binding of FDG to the aphthous regions of Glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (G1), hexokinase (G2), and glucose transporter-1 (G3) were selected. In this study, the strong binding of FDG to protein influences the effect of radiation on the active site of enzymes. The G1 and G3 shown in the study interacted with only one charged amino acid FDG, and the absence of an aromatic residue around it can be considered among the results of this study as the cause of the low protective effect against ionizing radiation. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd, None.

The noted Design of a new and effective radiation shielding material is a growing demand to reduce the harmful effects of ionizing radiation in medical and nuclear applications. In this research article, three silver nitrate (AgNO3) doped PVA polymers were reported to serve as potential shielding materials against gamma ray. These polymers were tested in terms of their polarizability, optical transmission, and metallization properties. Furthermore, the radiation shielding performance of the involved polymers was assessed by Geant4 simulations based on Monte Carlo approach over a large range of energies up to 15 MeV. The results indicate that the density of the present polymers increased from 1.19 g/cm3 for pure-PVA to 1.41 g/cm3 for 5% AgNO3 doped PVA sample. At high energies, exceeding 150 keV, LAC values of all investigated samples become almost independent of their chemical composition. For Pure-PVA polymer, the LAC values start from its highest values of 1.358 cm−1 at 15 keV then decrease with increasing energy to be 0.022 cm−1 at 15 MeV. At all penetration depths and energies, EABF values were higher for Pure-PVA than those of other polymers. The AgNO3 addition has a positive impact to improve the shielding performance of the polymer to be close to that of ordinary concrete (standard radiation shield).

We fabricated a new series of sodium tetraborate (Na2B4O7) containing TeO2, CaF2, and CuO for advanced performance in optical and radiation applications. PHILIPS (Xpert PRO) X-ray diffractometer was employed at room temperature (RT) to investigate the fabricated specimens' amorphous nature. Furthermore, UV–visible spectra and EPR spectra (~9.7 GHz and field modulation 100 kHz) were also achieved for the involved glass system. Moreover, FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations were successfully designed to describe the gamma transmission properties through the fabricated glass specimens. The results reveal that the optical band gap (Eg) decreased from 3.079 to 2.605 eV as the CaF2 content increased from 0 to 50 mol %. In the EPR spectra, fourth parallel hyperfine splittings in the high field are merged with the perpendicular hyperfine splitting's resulting in a single intense line. The gamma transmission studies show that the gamma absorption in the present glasses were highest at the least energy with the value of within the range: 0.0789–0.0229, 0.0789–0.0232, 0.0790–0.0236, 0.0790–0.0241, 0.0791–0.0246, and 0.0792–0.0253 cm2g−1 for CaF2 content of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mol %, respectively. It can be concluded that the present fabricated glass system has excellent and promising properties to use for optical and radiation applications.

Transparent sodium lead-borate glasses-doped zirconium nanoparticles were synthesized. Some physical and optical constants like molar refractivity, molar polarizability $${\propto }_{\mathrm{m}}$$ electronegativity, optical basicity and indirect optical band gap are estimated. The radiation parameters for NPBZ glasses as mass attenuation coefficient, linear attenuation, HVL, TVL, Neff, Zeff, Zeq, energy exposure factor and energy absorption buildup factor were determined depending on XCOM and Phy-X/PSD programs. The relative deviation and radiation protection efficiency are produced. The fast neutron removal is calculated in terms of $$\sum R$$ . The investigated results indicate that transparent Na/Pb/B glasses containing zirconium nanoparticle are a good candidate substance for gamma ray and fast neutron removal protection.

Pure In2O3 and 6% Cr-doped In2O3 thin films were prepared on a silicon (Si) substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique. The obtained In2O3/In2O3:Cr thin films structural, morphological, optical, magnetic and gas sensing properties were briefly investigated. The X-ray diffraction results confirmed that the grown thin films are in single-phase cubic bixbyte structure with space group Ia-3. The SEM analysis showed the formation of agglomerated spherical shape morphology with the decreased average grain size for Cr doped In2O3 thin film compared to pure In2O3 film. It is observed that the Cr doped In2O3 thin film shows the lower band gap energy and that the corresponding transmittance is around 80%. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements revealed that the presence of oxygen vacancy in the doped In2O3 film. These oxygen defects could play a significant role to enhance the sensing performance towards chemical species. In the magnetic hysteresis loop, it is clear that the prepared films confirm the ferromagnetic behaviour and the maximum saturation value of 39 emu/cc for Cr doped In2O3 film. NH3 gas sensing studies was also carried out at room temperature for both pure and Cr doped In2O3 films, and the obtained higher sensitivity is 182% for Cr doped In2O3, which is about nine times higher than for the pure In2O3 film due to the presence of defects on the doped film surface.

The monitoring of concentrations of metals in road dust can be used in evaluating vehicular contributions to the environment. Here we compare the efficacy of several analytical techniques for such samples: XRF, SEM/EDX and ICP-MS, providing for both qualitative and absolute quantitative analysis. To-date we have made evaluation of key elemental levels from roadside dust sampled at different locations within the University of Surrey and the Kuwait Research Institute, in so-doing also investigating the influence of engine size (Kuwaiti vehicles tending to be of larger engine capacity than those in the UK) and the influence of climate, maritime and arid in the present case. With a total of 36 street dust samples collected to-date, 18 have now been analyzed, elemental concentrations being reported for Mg, Al, Ti, Mn, Fe, Co, Zr, Mo, Ba, Tl, V, Rd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Cd, As, Hg and Au. For University of Surrey samples, obtained at three different times of the year, SEM/EDX findings range from below the lower limit of detection for Ag, through to 4.7 × 10−6 mg/m2 for Co, up to 3.6 × 10−2 mg/m2 for Fe. Using ICP-MS on sieved University of Surrey road dust samples similarly taken at different times of the year, mean particle dimensions