Gamma and neutron shielding characterizations of the Ag2O–V2O5–MoO3–TeO2 quaternary tellurite glass system with the Geant4 simulation toolkit and Phy-X software

Gamma and neutron shielding potential of the newly developed xAg2O-(35-x)[0.5V2O5-0.5MoO3]-65TeO2 (x = 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mol%) quaternary tellurite glass system were investigated computationally by means of Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations and Phy-X software. Gamma ray shielding capabilities were studied via the mass attenuation coefficient (μm), transmission fractions (T), effective atomic number (Zeff), half value layer (HVL) and mean free path (MFP) parameters and for the photon energies of 0.284, 0.356, 0.511, 0.662, 1.173 and 1.330 MeV. Fast neutron removal cross-section (∑R) parameter of the glasses was calculated to assess the neutron shielding capabilities. The results of this study revealed that tellurite glass containing 25% moles of Ag2O has highest μm and Zeff and lowest T, HVL and MFP values due to the high atomic number of Ag. In this study it was also seen that the ∑R of the investigated glass system increases with the increase of Ag2O fraction and ∑R values of the studied glasses are higher than barite added concrete and close to the ∑R of the PbO added borate glasses.