Gadolinium-tungsten-boron trioxide glasses: A multi-phase research on cross-sections, attenuation coefficients, build-up factors and individual transmission factors using MCNPX

Abstract

The oxide of the rare earth element gadolinium has the chemical formula Gd2O3. Also known as gadolinium sesquioxide, gadolinium trioxide, and Gadolinia, gadolinium oxide. In this study, various types of fundamental cross-sections, attenuation coefficients, build-up factors and individual transmission factors of high density gadolinium-tungsten-boron trioxide glasses with a chemical composition of (70-x)WO3-xGd2O3 –30B2O3 (where x: 17.5, 20.0, 22.5, 25.0 and 27.5 mol%) are determined using advanced Monte Carlo methods. In addition, gamma transmission factors (TFs) for a range of medical and industrial radioisotopes were calculated using MCNPX (version 2.7.0) Monte Carlo code. The investigated glasses were classified Gd17.5, Gd20.0, Gd22.5, Gd25.0, and Gd27.5 in accordance with xGd2O3. Our findings suggest that the Gd27.5 sample (with highest of Gd2O3 content mol. %) has possessed the maximum linear (µ) and mass (µ/ρ) attenuation coefficients at all gamma-ray energies investigated. The coded glass sample Gd27.5 is achieved the maximum effective atomic number (Zeff) and effective electron density (Neff) owing its superior attenuation properties. In terms of build-up factors, increasing the concentration of xGd2O3 in glasses is decreased the EBF and EABF values for all mean free path values (0.5–40 mfp). At a thickness of 3 cm, the lowest transmission factor (i.e., highest attenuation) was verified for all Gd17.5-Gd27.5 glasses investigated. Consequently, the Gd27.5 sample exhibits superior radiation shielding properties for a large range of photon energy and various medical and industrial radioisotope energies. © 2022 Elsevier GmbH