Investigation of-lead borate glasses doped with aluminium oxide as gamma ray shielding materials

Gamma-ray attenuation coefficients of xPbO center dot(0.90 - x)B2O3 center dot 0.10Al(2)O(3) (x = 0.25, 0.30, 0.35, 0.40 and 0.45) glass system have been calculated with WinXCOM computer program developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology. Results have been further used to calculate half value layer and mean free path values. Gamma-ray shielding parameters of glass samples have been compared with standard nuclear radiation shielding concretes. The prepared glass samples have higher values of mass attenuation coefficients and lower values of half value layer as compared to concretes for most of gamma ray energy range. The density, molar volume, X-ray diffraction, UV-visible studies, ultrasonic and DSC investigations have been used to study the structural properties of the glass samples. It has been inferred that increase in the composition of PbO leads to the formation of non bridging oxygens which leads to decrease in the rigidity of the glass samples. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.