Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

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Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids

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Comparative shielding properties of some tellurite glasses: Part 2

R. El-Mallawanya,⁎, M.I. Sayyedb, M.G. Dongc
a
Physics Dept., Faculty of Science, Menofia University, Egypt
b
Physics Dept., Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
c
Department of Resource and Environment, School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This article focuses on the shielding properties among 21 tellurite glass samples in the form of TeO2-V2O5, TeO2-
Glasses V2O5-TiO2, TeO2-V2O5-CeO2 and TeO2-V2O5-ZnO. The shielding properties are:
Tellurite
Shielding properties 1.Mass attenuation coefficient, μ/ρ (10 keV–10 MeV),
2.Effective atomic number Zeff,
3.Half value layer, HVL,
4.Macroscopic effective removal cross-section for fast neutron (ΣR).
Also, variation of the shielding parameters is compared with other tellurite, borate and silicate glasses to
explore the superior shielding properties of tellurite glasses from gamma rays than other glasses.

1. Introduction The aim of this work is to calculate the shielding parameters in

Now, neutrons, gamma and X rays are used widely in the world in
many applications, for example, food irradiation, environmental pro-
tection, manufacture, elemental analysis, medical therapy, etc.
However, the exposure for long times to the high penetrating radiation
such as gamma rays may cause genetic mutations, cancer and death. So,
it is necessary to choose suitable shielding materials to protect people
from these harmful radiations [1–6]. Concrete shields are used widely
for shielding harmful radiations [7–10]. However, during the period of
using the concrete, the water contained in concrete would be lost. This
would be harmful for the structural of concrete. Further, concrete is
utterly opaque to visible light and so, it is quite impossible to look
through a concrete-based radiation shield [11]. Due to their optical
transparency for visible light, cheap cost, easily to shape, glasses re-
cently are attracted several investigators to study them as promising
materials for gamma-rays shielding. A number of researches have been
reported on structural and physical properties of tellurite-glasses with
different transition metal oxides TMO and rare earth oxides REO
composition [12–25] for:
(i) the high refractive index of tellurite glasses rather than other sili-
cate, borate, phosphate and germinate glasses,
(ii) modifying tellurite glasses with oxides like vanadium, titanium and
cerium increase its semiconductivity.
tellurite glasses: TeO2-V2O5, TeO2-V2O5-TiO2, TeO2-V2O5-CeO2 and
TeO2-V2O5-ZnO, while part 1 of this work focused on the shielding
parameters among tellurite glasses in the form: TeO2-AnOm, TeO2-WO3-
BnOm and TeO2-WO3-Er2O3-PbO where AnOm = La2O3, CeO2, Sm2O3,
MnO2, CoO3, Nb2O5, BnOm = Er2O3, La2O3, Sm2O3, CeO2 mol% [26].
The glass samples and densities used in this investigation are given in
Table 1.
2. Calculation method
Mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) is a measure of the decrement in
intensity of gamma-ray when passing through a material and can be
calculated from the equation [27]:
μ ρ= ∑ wi (μ ρ)i
i (1)
here wi represents the fractional weight of the ith constituent in the
glass sample and (μ/ρ)i is the mass attenuation coefficient of the ith
element that have been taken from XCOM software [28]. Effective
atomic number (Zeff) is parameter which describes the properties of the
composite materials in terms of equivalent elements, and it changes
with photon energy. The Zeff can be evaluated from the value of μ/ρ,
and is given by the relation [29]

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: raoufelmallawany@yahoo.com (R. El-Mallawany).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2017.08.011
Received 21 June 2017; Received in revised form 5 August 2017; Accepted 7 August 2017
0022-3093/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: El-Mallawany, R., Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2017.08.011
R. El-Mallawany et al. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Table 1
Density and molar volume of binary and ternary tellurite glasses.

No. Sample code Sample Reference Density Molar volume

gm/cm3 cm3

1 T90V10 90TeO2-10V2O5 A 5.213 31.04

2 T80V20 80TeO2-20V2O5 4.900 33.48
3 T75V25 75TeO2-25V2O5 4.620 35.75
4 T70V30 70TeO2-30V2O5 4.564 36.43
5 T65V35 65TeO2-35V2O5 4.330 38.66
6 T60V40 60TeO2-40V2O5 4.225 39.88
7 T55V45 55TeO2-45V2O5 4.100 41.37
8 T50V50 50TeO2-50V2O5 3.996 42.73
9 T50V48Ti2 50TeO2-48V2O5-2TiO2 B 3.988 42.30
10 T50V45Ti5 50TeO2-45V2O5-5TiO2 4.018 41.22
11 T50V40Ti10 50TeO2-40V2O5-10TiO2 4.062 39.52
12 T50V37.5Ti12.5 50TeO2-37.5V2O5-12.5TiO2 4.131 38.24
12 T50V35Ti15 50TeO2-35V2O5-15TiO2 4.182 37.17
14 T70V27C3 70TeO2-27V2O5-3CeO2 C 6.0882 27.3
15 T70V25C5 70TeO2-25V2O5-5CeO2 6.1327 28.0
16 T70V23C7 70TeO2-23V2O5-7CeO2 6.5384 26.2
17 T70V20C10 70TeO2-20V2O5-10CeO2 6.7610 24.5
18 T70V27Z3 70TeO2-27V2O5-3ZnO 5.0769 32.2
19 T70V25Z5 70TeO2-25V2O5-5ZnO 5.1169 31.5
20 T70V23Z7 70TeO2-23V2O5-7ZnO 5.1919 30.7
21 T70V20Z10 70TeO2-20V2O5-10ZnO 5.2585 29.7

Zeff =
∑i fi Ai ()
μ
ρ i
Aj
∑j f j Z
j ()
μ
ρ j (2)
Half value layer (HVL) is the thickness of material which will de-
crease radiation intensity to 50% of the initial value. It is calculated
according to the equation [30]
0.693
HVL =
μ (3)
where: μ is the linear attenuation coefficient (μ = mass attenuation
coefficient × density). It worth noting that, materials with the highest
value of density, μ/ρ and Zeff and lowest value of HVL are best suitable
for gamma-ray shielding applications. On the other hand, the macro-
scopic effective removal cross sections for fast neutrons ∑R is the
probability of a neutron undergoing specific reaction per unit length of
moving through the shielding material [27]. The ∑R values for the
present glasses can be evaluated by utilizing following equation [31]
Fig. 1. Comparison of MCNP5 and XCOM calculated values of mass attenuation coeffi-
∑R = ∑ Wi ( ∑R ρ )i cients versus photon energy for the binary glass system (TeO2)1 − x-(V2O5)x in the energy
i (4) range 10 keV to 10 MeV.

where ∑R/ρ (cm /g) and Wi represent the mass removal cross-section of
2

the ith constituent and the partial density (g/cm3) respectively.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 1 shows the obtained results of the μ/ρ of the binary glass
system (TeO2)1 − x-(V2O5)x, (x = 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 mol
%) calculated using XCOM and MCNP5 and their variations over V2O5
concentrations and gamma ray energies in the energy range
10 keV–10 MeV. There are good agreements on the μ/ρ obtained by
XCOM and MCNP5 code as shown in Fig. 1. It is observed that μ/ρ
values are influenced by V2O5 concentration and photon energy and for
all V2O5 concentration, the μ/ρ values were decreased exponentially
with the increasing of energy. In addition, it is clear that at lower en-
ergies the total interaction of photons with all glasses is high while at
higher energies it decreases which indicates that the transmission of
photon increases thorough the glass samples. Also, it can be observed
that the μ/ρ values are decreased with the increase of V2O5 content for
all energies. From this figure it is clearly that the μ/ρ of all glasses
reduce very sharply as the photon energy decreases from 0.01 MeV to
0.02 MeV, for example the μ/ρ of tellurite glass with 10 mol% V2O5
found to be decreasing from 114.11 cm2/g to 17.08 cm2/g, while in
tellurite glass with 50 mol% V2O5 it decreases from 96.01 cm2/g to
14.55 cm2/g. In the low energy region (E < 0.01 MeV), the μ/ρ values
decrease very sharply due to photoelectric effect. Photoelectric effect
predominates at low photon energy as its cross section changes with
atomic number (~ Z4–5) and energy (~ 1/E3). Hence, glasses have
highest μ/ρ values in this energy region where photoelectric effect
dominates and the values of μ/ρ decrease as energy increases. Ad-
ditionally, it is also noted a peak in the μ/ρ happens at 40 keV corre-
sponding to k-edge absorption of Te (i.e. 31.18 keV). In order to com-
pare the μ/ρ of the binary glass system TeO2-V2O5 with other glass
systems, μ/ρ values of 80TeO2-20K2O [31], 60ZnO-40P2O5 and 10PbO-
50ZnO-40P2O5 [32] glasses are collected and given in Table 2. From
Table 2, it can be observed that 80TeO2-20V2O5 has about the same
values of μ/ρ with 80TeO2-20K2O, and all tellurite glasses with V2O5
modifier have higher values of μ/ρ than those reported for 60ZnO-
40P2O5 and 10PbO-50ZnO-40P2O5 glasses.
Fig. 2 shows the μ/ρ values of (TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x(TiO2)x (x = 2,
5, 10, 12.5 and 15 mol% TiO2) glasses calculated using XCOM software
and MCNP5 code and their variations over photon energies and TiO2

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R. El-Mallawany et al. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Table 2
Mass attenuation coefficient (cm2/g) for the binary glass system (TeO2)1 − x-(V2O5)x glasses and some glass samples.

Energy (MeV) 10 mol% 20 mol% 25 mol% 30 mol% 35 mol% 40 mol% 50 mol% 80TeO2-20K2O [31] 60ZnO-40P2O5 [32] 10PbO-50ZnO-40P2O5 [32]

0.01 114.108 109.226 106.785 104.344 101.904 99.463 94.581 110.152 114.679 107.674
0.02 17.084 16.298 15.904 15.511 15.118 14.725 13.938 16.898 18.067 22.922
0.03 5.533 5.266 5.133 4.999 4.866 4.732 4.466 5.648 5.841 7.582
0.04 14.709 13.231 12.491 11.752 11.013 10.274 8.796 13.494 2.620 3.450
0.05 8.114 7.300 6.893 6.485 6.078 5.671 4.856 7.495 1.430 1.893
0.06 4.973 4.477 4.229 3.981 3.733 3.485 2.989 4.624 0.892 1.178
0.08 2.292 2.069 1.958 1.847 1.736 1.624 1.402 2.163 0.456 0.589
0.1 1.270 1.153 1.094 1.035 0.976 0.917 0.799 1.217 0.297 0.755
0.2 0.260 0.245 0.237 0.230 0.222 0.214 0.199 0.264 0.136 0.209
0.5 0.087 0.087 0.087 0.086 0.086 0.086 0.085 0.091 0.085 0.091
1 0.057 0.058 0.058 0.058 0.058 0.058 0.059 0.059 0.061 0.062
2 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.042 0.042 0.043 0.044
3 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.037
4 0.034 0.034 0.033 0.033 0.033 0.033 0.033 0.034 0.032 0.033
5 0.033 0.033 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.031 0.033 0.030 0.031
6 0.033 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.031 0.031 0.030 0.032 0.028 0.030
7 0.033 0.032 0.032 0.031 0.031 0.031 0.030 0.032 0.027 0.029
8 0.033 0.032 0.032 0.031 0.031 0.031 0.030 0.033 0.027 0.028
9 0.034 0.033 0.032 0.032 0.031 0.031 0.030 0.033 0.026 0.028
10 0.034 0.033 0.032 0.032 0.031 0.031 0.030 0.033 0.026 0.028

Fig. 2. Comparison of MCNP5 and XCOM calculated values of mass attenuation coeffi- Fig. 3. Comparison of MCNP5 and XCOM calculated values of mass attenuation coeffi-
cients versus photon energy for the ternary glass system (TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x–(TiO2)x in cients versus photon energy for the ternary glass system (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(AnOm)x
the energy range 10 keV to 10 MeV. where AnOm is CeO2 or ZnO, and x = 3, 5, 7, 10 mol% in the energy range 10 keV to
10 MeV.

Table 3
Mass attenuation coefficient (cm2/g) for (TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x–(TiO2)x glasses. mol%. There is a good agreement on the μ/ρ calculated using XCOM
software and MCNP5 code as shown in Fig. 2. In addition, Table 3
Energy (MeV) 2 mol% 5 mol% 10 mol% 12.5 mol% 15 mol% collected values of μ/ρ of TeO2-V2O5-TiO2 glass samples. As shown in
0.01 93.223 91.187 87.792 86.095 84.398 Table 3 and Fig. 2 the μ/ρ values are decreased with the increase of
0.02 13.744 13.453 12.968 12.726 12.483 TiO2 content and this can be attributed to replacement of V2O5 by TiO2
0.03 4.406 4.316 4.166 4.091 4.015 since V2O5 has higher molecular weight than TiO2. As in case of binary
0.04 8.769 8.730 8.664 8.631 8.599 TeO2-V2O5 glasses, a peak in the μ/ρ occurs at 40 keV corresponding to
0.05 4.842 4.821 4.785 4.768 4.750
0.06 2.980 2.967 2.945 2.934 2.923
k-edge absorption of Te. Additionally, it can be seen that the μ/ρ values
0.08 1.397 1.391 1.379 1.374 1.368 decrease very quickly from 93.22 to 13.74 cm2/g, 91.19 to 13.45 cm2/
0.1 0.796 0.792 0.784 0.780 0.777 g, 87.79 to 12.97 cm2/g, 86.09 to 12.73 cm2/g and 84.40 to 12.48 cm2/
0.2 0.198 0.195 0.192 0.190 0.188 g for 2, 5, 10, 12.5 and 15 mol% TiO2. Furthermore, it can be observed
0.5 0.084 0.083 0.081 0.079 0.078
that the values μ/ρ for E > 2 MeV tend to become constant when en-
1 0.058 0.057 0.055 0.054 0.053
2 0.041 0.040 0.039 0.039 0.038 ergy values increased, this could be attributed to the Compton scat-
3 0.035 0.035 0.033 0.033 0.032 tering which is predominant in this range. The μ/ρ values of TeO2-V2O5-
4 0.032 0.032 0.031 0.030 0.030 TiO2 are lower than those reported of 80TeO2-20K2O [31], 60ZnO-
5 0.031 0.030 0.029 0.029 0.028 40P2O5 and 10PbO-50ZnO-40P2O5 [32] glasses. Fig. 3 shows the var-
6 0.030 0.029 0.029 0.028 0.028
7 0.030 0.029 0.028 0.028 0.027
iation of μ/ρ for (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(CeO2)x and
8 0.029 0.029 0.028 0.028 0.027 (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(ZnO)x glasses with photon energy and the μ/ρ
9 0.029 0.029 0.028 0.028 0.027 values for these glasses were tabulated in Table 4. It can be seen that the
10 0.029 0.029 0.028 0.028 0.027 μ/ρ values increase with increase of CeO2 or ZnO content. The increase
in μ/ρ values accompanying the addition of CeO2 or ZnO is related to

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Table 4
attenuation coefficients (cm2/g) of (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(AnOm)x glasses where AnOm is CeO2 or ZnO, and x = 3, 5, 7, 10 mol%.

Energy (MeV) 3 mol% 5 mol% 7 mol% 10 mol% 3 mol% 5 mol% 7 mol% 10 mol%
CeO2 CeO2 CeO2 CeO2 ZnO ZnO ZnO ZnO

0.01 107.853 110.191 112.530 116.038 107.280 109.237 111.194 114.130

0.02 16.096 16.487 16.877 17.462 15.989 16.307 16.625 17.103
0.03 5.189 5.316 5.443 5.633 5.160 5.267 5.374 5.535
0.04 11.836 11.892 11.947 12.031 11.825 11.874 11.923 11.996
0.05 6.529 6.558 6.587 6.631 6.825 7.051 7.277 7.616
0.06 4.006 4.023 4.040 4.065 4.190 4.329 4.469 4.678
0.08 1.858 1.865 1.872 1.883 1.942 2.006 2.070 2.165
0.1 1.040 1.044 1.047 1.053 1.086 1.120 1.154 1.206
0.2 0.230 0.231 0.231 0.232 0.237 0.241 0.246 0.253
0.5 0.086 0.086 0.086 0.086 0.087 0.087 0.087 0.088
1 0.058 0.058 0.058 0.058 0.058 0.058 0.058 0.058
2 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041
3 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036 0.036
4 0.033 0.033 0.033 0.033 0.033 0.033 0.034 0.034
5 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.033 0.033
6 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032
7 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032
8 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.033
9 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.033
10 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.032 0.033 0.033 0.033

the increase in the density. In the low energy (i.e. at 0.04 MeV), peak in
the value of μ/ρ were found due to K-absorption edge at the energy
31.8 keV for Te. Also, as the photon energy increases from 0.01 MeV to
0.02 MeV, the μ/ρ value decrease from 107.853 to 16.096 cm2/g and
107.280 to 15.989 cm2/g for 3 mol% CeO2 and ZnO respectively. From
Table 4 and Fig. 3, it is observed that for photon energy range than
1 MeV–4 MeV all the samples have the same μ/ρ values, this is due to
dominate of Compton scattering in this energy range [33], while for
photon energy larger than 4 MeV, the μ/ρ values are constant for all
samples which could be attributed to the pair production which is
predominant. The calculated μ/ρ of the tellurite glasses with CeO2 or
ZnO modifier are higher than those of 60ZnO-40P2O5 and 10PbO-
50ZnO-40P2O5 [32], and comparable to the μ/ρ of 80TeO2-20K2O [31]
glass in the photon energy range 1–10 MeV.
Figs. 4–6 show the Zeff of (TeO2)1 − x-(V2O5)x,
(TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x(TiO2)x, (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(CeO2)x and
(TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(ZnO)x glasses, respectively and their variations
over gamma ray energies. In addition, the Zeff of three glass systems are
Fig. 5. Effective atomic numbers of (TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x–(TiO2)x glasses in the energy
given in Tables 5–7. In addition, the Zeff for
range 10 keV to 10 MeV.
60TeO2–10B2O3–10MoO3–10ZnO–10MO (MO = Li2O, Na2O, and CaO)

Fig. 6. Effective atomic numbers of (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(AnOm)x glasses where

AnOm = CeO2 or ZnO, and x = 3, 5, 7, 10 mol% in the energy range 10 keV to 10 MeV.
Fig. 4. Effective atomic numbers for the binary glass system (TeO2)1 − x-(V2O5)x glasses
in the energy range 10 keV to 10 MeV.

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R. El-Mallawany et al. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Table 5
Effective atomic number for the binary glass system (TeO2)1 − x-(V2O5)x glasses and some glass samples.

Energy (MeV) 10 mol% 20 mol% 25 mol% 30 mol% 35 mol% 40 mol% 50 mol% 60TeO2–10Li2Oa [38] 60TeO2–10Na2Ob [38] 60TeO2–10CaOc [38]

0.01 39.90 38.19 37.34 36.49 35.63 34.78 33.93 39.92 40.85 38.84
0.02 41.21 39.31 38.36 37.42 36.47 35.52 34.57 28.39 29.80 29.12
0.03 41.26 39.27 38.27 37.28 36.29 35.29 34.30 27.70 29.18 28.61
0.04 79.70 71.69 67.68 63.68 59.67 55.67 51.66 56.04 59.36 58.02
0.05 78.06 70.22 66.30 62.39 58.47 54.55 50.63 54.78 58.09 57.01
0.06 75.33 67.82 64.06 60.30 56.55 52.79 49.03 52.80 56.04 55.27
0.08 67.59 61.03 57.75 54.47 51.19 47.91 44.63 47.37 50.36 50.19
0.1 58.63 53.19 50.47 47.76 45.04 42.32 39.60 41.31 43.97 44.30
0.2 29.34 27.62 26.76 25.90 25.04 24.18 23.32 22.34 23.85 24.78
0.5 16.71 16.61 16.56 16.51 16.46 16.41 16.37 14.14 15.12 15.90
1 15.28 15.36 15.41 15.45 15.49 15.54 15.58 13.10 14.01 14.76
2 15.46 15.53 15.57 15.61 15.64 15.68 15.71 13.17 14.08 14.83
3 16.43 16.40 16.39 16.37 16.35 16.34 16.32 13.81 14.74 15.52
4 17.53 17.38 17.30 17.23 17.15 17.08 17.01 14.56 15.51 16.32
5 18.60 18.34 18.21 18.08 17.94 17.81 17.68 15.32 16.28 17.11
6 19.60 19.23 19.05 18.86 18.68 18.49 18.31 16.04 17.00 17.86
7 20.51 20.05 19.82 19.59 19.36 19.12 18.89 16.71 17.68 18.55
8 21.36 20.81 20.53 20.26 19.98 19.70 19.43 17.34 18.30 19.19
9 22.13 21.50 21.18 20.86 20.55 20.23 19.91 17.93 18.88 19.77
10 22.83 22.12 21.77 21.42 21.06 20.71 20.36 18.46 19.41 20.31

a
60TeO2-10B2O3-10MoO3-10ZnO-10Li2O.
b
60TeO2-10B2O3-10MoO3-10ZnO-10Na2O.
c
60TeO2-10B2O3-10MoO3-10ZnO-10CaO.

Table 6 pair production in this energy region. From Table 5 and Fig. 4, it is clear
Effective atomic number for (TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x–(TiO2)x glasses. that the addition of V2O5 leads to decreases the Zeff values. Fig. 5 shows
that the Zeff decrease with the addition of TiO2 content and the Zeff
Energy (MeV) 2 mol% 5 mol% 10 mol% 12.5 mol% 15 mol%
values for binary tellurite glasses with V2O5 are higher than those for
0.01 32.17 32.15 32.11 32.10 32.08 tellurite glasses TeO2-V2O5-TiO2 at the same photon energy. Ad-
0.02 32.93 32.90 32.84 32.82 32.79 ditionally, from Fig. 6, it is clear that the Zeff values increase with in-
0.03 32.74 32.70 32.65 32.62 32.59
creasing CeO2 and ZnO and the Zeff values for tellurite glasses modified
0.04 54.13 54.12 54.10 54.09 54.08
0.05 52.87 52.86 52.84 52.83 52.82
with CeO2 are higher than tellurite glasses with ZnO. The calculated
0.06 50.86 50.85 50.83 50.82 50.81 values of Zeff of (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(CeO2)x and
0.08 45.42 45.42 45.40 45.40 45.39 (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(ZnO)x, are higher than those of
0.1 39.49 39.48 39.47 39.47 39.46 60TeO2–10B2O3–10MoO3–10ZnO–10MO (MO = Li2O, Na2O, and CaO)
0.2 22.17 22.17 22.17 22.17 22.17
[38], while the Zeff values for the ternary tellurite glasses (TeO2)-
0.5 15.57 15.57 15.58 15.58 15.58
1 14.85 14.86 14.86 14.86 14.86 (V2O5)-(TiO2) are close to the values of Zeff of
2 14.97 14.98 14.98 14.98 14.99 60TeO2–10B2O3–10MoO3–10ZnO–10Na2O [38] for photon energy
3 15.53 15.53 15.54 15.54 15.54 larger than 0.2 MeV (see Tables 5–7).
4 16.16 16.16 16.17 16.17 16.17 Figs. 7–9 show the half value layer (HVL) of the binary tellurite
5 16.78 16.79 16.79 16.79 16.80
6 17.36 17.37 17.37 17.38 17.38
glasses (TeO2)1 − x-(V2O5)x, (x = 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 mol
7 17.90 17.91 17.91 17.92 17.92 %), ternary tellurite glasses (TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x(TiO2)x, x = 2, 5, 10,
8 18.40 18.40 18.41 18.41 18.42 12.5 and 15 mol%, (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(CeO2)x and
9 18.86 18.86 18.87 18.87 18.87 (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(ZnO)x, respectively. From Figs. 7–9, it is clearly
10 19.27 19.27 19.28 19.28 19.29
noticed that HVL are influenced by chemical contents of the glasses and
incident photon energy. Moreover, it can be seen that at lower photon
[38] are presented in Table 5 in order to compare the Zeff of the selected energy (E < 0.1 MeV) the HVL values of the three glass systems are
glass systems with other glasses. very small. As the incident photon energy increases, the HVL values
The behavior of Zeff for all glasses is almost identical. The same increase rapidly and reach maximum value at 7 MeV, then start de-
general shape was reported for different glass systems and different creasing with further increase in photon energy. Also, Figs. 7–9 show
materials such as polymers [27], biological compounds [34], concretes very well that inclusion of V2O5, TiO2, CeO2 and ZnO modifier in the
[35] and zinc boro-tellurite glasses [36]. It is clear from Figs. 4–6 that matrix changes the magnitude of the HVL. Fig. 7, shows that the HVL
for E < 40 keV the Zeff are almost photon energy independent and all values of the binary TeO2-V2O5 glasses increase with increase the
the samples have high Zeff values, while sharp increase in Zeff values can concentration of V2O5, while additional amounts of TiO2 in the ternary
be observed at 40 keV, and this sharp increase can be explained on the TeO2-V2O5-TiO2 glasses results in an increase of HVL values as shown in
basis of k edge absorption of the Te. Thereafter, the Zeff for all glasses Fig. 8. Whenever we find the shorter HVL this will indicate more in-
decrease rapidly with photon energy up to 1 MeV. This can be ex- teraction of photons to material and consequently the better shielding
plained on the basis of dependence of cross-section of photoelectric properties are achieved. From Figs. 7–9 it is found that the HVL values
process which varies inversely with the photon energy as E− 3.5 [37]. As of TeO2-V2O5-CeO2 glass system are lower than those of TeO2-V2O5-
can be seen from Figs. 4–6, the Zeff reaches minimum value in the en- ZnO. Also, we can see that the HVL of the ternary TeO2-V2O5-CeO2
ergy range 1–3 MeV. This may be due to dominance of the Compton glasses are lower than of TeO2-V2O5 glasses and TeO2-V2O5-TiO2
scattering process, where the interaction cross section is directly pro- glasses. It indicates that the TeO2-V2O5-CeO2 glasses have compara-
portional to atomic number Z [27]. Beyond 3 MeV, there is a regular tively good shielding properties than the other glasses in the present
increase in Zeff with photon energy. This is may be due dominance of work. It is worth noting that the three glass systems have lower HVL
values than both ordinary and basalt magnetite concrete [39] which

5
R. El-Mallawany et al. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Table 7
Effective atomic number of (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(AnOm)x glasses where AnOm is CeO2 or ZnO, and x = 3, 5, 7, 10 mol%.

Energy (MeV) 3 mol% 5 mol% 7 mol% 10 mol% 3 mol% 5 mol% 7 mol% 10 mol%
CeO2 CeO2 CeO2 CeO2 ZnO ZnO ZnO ZnO

0.01 36.86 37.53 38.20 39.21 30.56 31.22 31.88 32.88

0.02 37.13 37.87 38.61 39.72 30.56 31.3 32.04 33.15
0.03 36.76 37.52 38.28 39.43 30.49 31.24 31.98 33.1
0.04 80.76 81.09 81.42 81.92 66.98 67.3 67.61 68.09
0.05 48.65 50.27 51.88 54.30 65.98 66.27 66.56 67
0.06 47.44 49.02 50.60 52.97 63.98 64.25 64.52 64.93
0.08 44.48 45.94 47.40 49.58 57.9 58.13 58.35 58.68
0.1 41.00 42.29 43.58 45.51 50.68 50.86 51.04 51.3
0.2 26.97 27.51 28.04 28.84 27.08 27.13 27.17 27.25
0.5 18.80 18.86 18.91 19.00 17.08 17.08 17.08 17.08
1 17.76 17.75 17.74 17.73 15.95 15.95 15.94 15.94
2 17.94 17.93 17.93 17.92 16.1 16.1 16.1 16.1
3 18.75 18.77 18.80 18.83 16.87 16.88 16.89 16.9
4 19.66 19.71 19.76 19.85 17.73 17.75 17.77 17.8
5 20.54 20.62 20.71 20.84 18.58 18.61 18.64 18.68
6 21.35 21.46 21.57 21.74 19.36 19.4 19.44 19.5
7 22.09 22.23 22.36 22.57 20.08 20.12 20.17 20.24
8 22.77 22.93 23.09 23.33 20.73 20.79 20.85 20.93
9 23.37 23.56 23.74 24.01 21.33 21.4 21.46 21.55
10 23.92 24.12 24.32 24.62 21.87 21.94 22.01 22.12

Fig. 7. Half value layers for the binary glass system (TeO2)1 − x-(V2O5)x glasses in the Fig. 9. Half value layers of (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(AnOm)x glasses where AnOm is CeO2 or
energy range 10 keV to 10 MeV. ZnO, and x = 3, 5, 7, 10 mol% in the range 10 keV to 10 MeV.

Fig. 8. Half value layers of (TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x–(TiO2)x glasses in the energy range
10 keV to 10 MeV.
means that they have better shielding properties than these types of
concretes, but they possess higher HVL values than 80TeO2-20PbO glass
[40].
The removal cross-section for fast neutron (∑R) for: (TeO2)1 − x-
(V2O5)x, (x = 10, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 mol%),
(TeO2)50–(V2O5)50 − x(TiO2)x, (x = 2, 5, 10, 12.5 and 15 mol%),
(TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(CeO2)x and (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(ZnO)x, is
shown in Fig. 10. Fig. 10 shows that the ∑R decreases from
0.10387 cm− 1 to 0.09706 cm− 1 with increase in V2O5. The ∑R of
TeO2–V2O5–TiO2 increases from 0.09677 cm− 1 to 0.1008 cm− 1 due to
the increase of TiO2 from 2 to 15 mol%. Also, it is found that the ∑R for
(TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(CeO2)x and (TeO2)70–(V2O5)30 − x–(ZnO)x in-
creases from 0.11116 cm− 1 to 0.11253 cm− 1 and 0.13241 cm− 1 to
0.14138 cm− 1 due to the increase of CeO2 and ZnO from 3 to 10 mol%
respectively. Moreover, it can be clearly seen that ∑R was the highest for
TeO2–V2O5–CeO2 glasses. We found that among the present glasses ΣR
was the highest for T70V20C10 glass of order of calculated values of
steel–magnetite and higher than other heavy concretes [39]. In addi-
tion, it is found that ΣR was the lowest for T50V50 (0.09706 cm− 1) and
higher than ordinary concrete (0.0937 cm− 1), hence the ΣR values of
all selected glasses were higher than ordinary concrete. Also, it is found
that the ΣR values for all the glass systems were higher than hematite-

6
R. El-Mallawany et al. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx

Fig. 10. Removal cross section for fast neutrons of

Removal cross-section for fast neutron (cm-1)
all glass samples.

0.14

T70V20C10
T70V23C7
T70V27C3
T70V25C5

0.13
T70V20Z10
T70V23Z7

0.12
T70V27Z3
T70V25Z5

T50V37.5Ti12.5

0.11
T50V35Ti15
T90V10

T80V20

T70V30
T50V45Ti5

T75V25
T50V48Ti2

T65V35
T50V40Ti10

T60V40

T55V45

T50V50
0.10

0 10 20 30 40 50
Mol

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