Impact of Nd3+ additive on the radiation shielding competence of borosilicate glasses fabricated from agro-waste materials

This work introduces a novel environmentally friendly method to produce borosilicate glass doped with neodymium from agro-waste materials for obtaining progressive laser amplifier glass with good radiation shielding properties. Glass with (mol%) 24 SiO2–43 B2O3–33 Na2O-xNd2O3 where x=0, 2, 4%, were prepared. SiO2 was extracted from agro-wastes to synthesize Nd-borosilicate glasses. Structurally, the prepared samples manifested good stability against different gamma doses according to FTIR measurements. The lasing amplifier properties were detected through the emission peak at 1055 nm of 4F3/2→ 4I11/2. Radiation attenuation parameters of the prepared glass samples were experimentally measured utilizing NaI (Tl) detector. Also; Phy-X/PSD software and MCNP5 code have been used for studying the ɣ-shielding potential of photon energy values ranging from 0.015 to 15 MeV. With the increase of Nd2O3 in the glass samples, the effectiveness of gamma protection is increased and relatively increased efficiency on the MSP and CSDA of the electrons.