Radiation shielding ability and optical features of La2O3+TiO2+Nb2O5+WO3+X2O3 (X=B, Ga, and In) glass system containing high-entropy oxides

Jamila S Alzahrani; Z A Alrowaili; Canel Eke; Abeer S Altowyan; I O Olarinoye; M S Al-Buriahi

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13607

Radiation shielding ability and optical features of La₂O₃+TiO₂+Nb₂O₅+WO₃+X₂O₃ (X=B, Ga, and In) glass system containing high-entropy oxides

Heliyon. 2023 Feb 9;9(2):e13607. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13607. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Jamila S Alzahrani¹, Z A Alrowaili², Canel Eke³, Abeer S Altowyan¹, I O Olarinoye⁴, M S Al-Buriahi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Physics, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O. Box 2014, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia.
³ Akdeniz University, Faculty of Education, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Antalya, Turkey.
⁴ Department of Physics, School of Physical Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria.
⁵ Department of Physics, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey.

Abstract

Three high entropy materials (La₂O₃+TiO₂+Nb₂O₅+WO₃+X₂O₃ coded as LTNWM1, LTNWM2, and LTNWM3 for X = B, Ga, and In) produced by aerodynamic containerless processing were evaluated for optical attributes, and their gamma-radiation absorption abilities were investigated in this report. Optical related parameters such as the molar refractivity ( $R_{m}$ ), optical transmission ( $T$ ), molar polarizability ( $α_{m}$ ), metallization criterion ( $M$ ), reflection loss ( $R_{L}$ ), static ( $ε^{s t a t i c}$ ), and optical ( $ε^{o p t i c a l}$ ) dielectric constants were estimated through standard expressions, while photon attenuation parameters were estimated from data from photon transmission simulations in FLUKA code and XCOM software. The attenuation parameters were calculated for a wide energy photon spectrum (15 keV-15 MeV). LTNWM1, LTNWM2, and LTNWM3 had $R_{m}$ values of 18.94 cm³/mol, 21.45 cm³/mol, and 26.09 cm³/mol respectively. The $α_{m}$ has a value of 7.52 × 10^-24 cm³ for LTNWM1, 8.51 × 10^-24 cm³ for LTNWM2, and 10.35 × 10^-24 cm³ for LTNWM3. The photon shielding parameters evaluated by FLUKA and XCOM are compatible. The mass attenuation coefficient for the glasses was between 0.0338 and 52.8261 cm²/g, 0.0336-58.0237 cm²/g, and 0.0344-52.1560 cm²/g for LTNWM1, LTNWM2 and LTNWM3, respectively. The effective atomic number at 1.5 MeV was 18.718, 20.857, and 22.440 for LTNWM1, LTNWM2, and LTNWM3, respectively. The shielding parameters of the HMOs compared to traditional gamma radiation absorbers are exceptional and highlight the potential of using them as optically transparent gamma-shields.

Keywords: High entropy oxides; Optical features; Radiation protection; Shielding applications.