A study of photon interaction and radiation shielding properties of BaO:Na2O:SiO2:B2O3 glasses

Barium sodium silicoborate glasses with different concentrations of BaO have been prepared by melt quenching technique at 1400 °C. Mass attenuation coefficient; effective atomic number and half value layer have been investigated by using gamma-ray at 662 keV photon energies. These parameters have been compared with theoretical calculation base on XCOM. The results show that the coherent scattering and photoelectric absorption of glasses have increased while the Compton scattering has decreased with increasing of BaO contents. However, Compton scattering gives dominant contribution to the total mass attenuation coefficients for the glasses. Good agreement has been observed between experimental and theoretical computation. Radiation shielding properties of the glasses have been compared with commercial window and ordinary concrete.