This work prepared high density B2O3-BaO-ZnO-Bi2O3 glass systems using the melt quenching
method, with the glasses' density in the 5.192–5.767 g/cm3
range. The half-value layer (HVL)
for the prepared glasses is reported at the energies emitted from the Eu-152 radioactive source.
The results demonstrated that the addition of ZnO and Bi2O3 reduces the HVL. The effective
atomic number (Zeff) for the glasses was calculated, with the results showing that the Zeff values
are high at low energy. The addition of ZnO and Bi2O3 increases the Zeff, and the glass sample
with 16 mol% ZnO and 41 mol% Bi2O3 has the highest Zeff value. The transmission factor (TF)
analysis indicates that as the gamma energy increases from 0.122 to 1.46 MeV at a thickness of
0.5 cm, the TF values for the glass samples increase significantly, thus demonstrating reduced
shielding efficiency at higher energies. However, the study also confirms that increasing the
concentrations of ZnO and Bi2O3 in the glass compositions effectively lowers the TF, therefore
enhancing the material's gamma radiation shielding capabilities