Development of gadolinium calcium phosphate oxyfluoride glass for radiation shielding materials

ABSTRACTIn this work, Gd2O3 based glasses with compositions 10CaF2:xGd2O3:(90-x)P2O5 (where x = 5, 10, 15 and 20 mol%) have been prepared by using melt-quenching method and investigated their physical, optical and gamma-ray shielding properties. The total mass attenuation coefficients increased with increasing Gd2O3 concentration and decreased with increasing of photon energies. The effective atomic numbers and the effective electron densities are in the same trend with the total mass attenuation coefficients. The Half-value layers (HVL) at 662 keV were found to decrease with increasing Gd2O3 concentration. All studied glasses have the HVL values lower than some standard shielding, ordinary concretes and commercial window, indicating the potential of the prepared glasses as a radiation shielding material.