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Ceramics International
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Fabrication, optical, structural and gamma radiation shielding

characterizations of GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO glasses
Y. Al-Hadeethia, M.I. Sayyedb,∗, Y.S. Rammahc
a
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia
b
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
c
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Koom, 32511, Menoufia, Egypt

A R T I CLE I N FO
A B S T R A C T

Keywords:
(90-X)GeO2-XPbO-5Al2O3–5CaO: 0 ≤ X ≤ 40 mol%) glasses have been fabricated by conventional melt
Glasses
Absorption spectrum fitting (ASF)
quenching technique and coded as GACPb00 to GACPb40. The structure of the prepared glasses has been ex-
Mass attenuation coefficients amined using X-ray diffraction measurements. The UV–vis spectra in the range of 190–1100 nm wavelength for
Half value thickness the proposed glasses have been recorded. Based on the absorption spectra, the band gap of optical energy (Egap)
has been evaluated using the direct method and absorption spectrum fitting (ASF) model. Index of refraction (n),
molar polarizability (αMolar), molar refractivity (RMolar), metallization criterion (MCriterion), dielectric constants
(εStatic and εOptical), optical transmission (TOptical), reflection loss (RLoss) have been evaluated. WinXcom program
was applied to study the photons shielding behavior of the present samples. The mass attenuation coe fficient of
the samples increases with the increase of PbO content at all energies. However, this increase is more notable at
low energies. The current samples have relatively high effective atomic number (Zeff) at low energy due to the
photoelectric phenomenon. The Zeff for GACPb00 and GACPb40 at 0.356 MeV is 16.02 and 30.76 respectively,
and at 0.662 MeV these values are 15.58 and 23.71. The results also revealed that the density of the samples
plays a very important rule of the half value thickness (HVT), and as well the thickness of the samples that are
used to block or attenuate the photons. Interestingly, we found that GACPb40 has the biggest μ/ρ and lowest
HVT which implies that this sample has superior photon attenuation capability.

1. Introduction
Over the past century, our understanding of radiation physics has
rapidly expanded to the point where nuclear reactors and nuclear
weapons have become much more prominent. The development of such
technologies comes with a risk, arising from the inadequate protection
measures from ionizing radiation coming from the use of these devices
and reactors [1–3]. One type of ionizing radiation is gamma rays, ra-
diation emitted from the nucleus of unstable nuclei. Gamma rays are
virtually identical to X-rays, except that X-rays are produced artificially,
and they are also able to move through the human body. Radioactive
substances have different useful applications in our daily life, ranging
from utilization of the radiation in hospital to uses in the fields of
agriculture and industry [4–6].
Radioactive particles and ionizing radiation are able to detach
electrons from atoms or molecules, and excessive exposure to radiation
could cause effects such as nausea, fatigue, vomiting, and possibly
death. As nuclear industries continue to expand, it will become
necessary to design structures that are resistant to the radiation harmful
effects on human lives. Adequate means of radiation shielding, and the
establishment of safety measures are necessary to restrict the prob-
ability of events that may cause a loss of control over nuclear facilities.
Without the development of materials with improved radiation
shielding properties, nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl or the pos-
sibility of a nuclear war will continue to harm and pose a threat to
human beings [7–10].
In order to decrease the risks of exposure to ionizing radiation,
adequate installation of radiation shielding materials is required.
Current methods of shielding are not practical due to their large costs
and the harm they may cause to human beings. Lead sheets, for ex-
ample, are effective but toXic material. Consequently, new protection
materials that are safe, environmentally friendly, and cheap need to be
developed as a substitute for lead-containing materials [11–13]. Ma-
terials consist of high-atomic number (Z) are suitable candidates be-
cause of their ability to interact and transfer energy from radiation. For
example, glasses are one of the most commonly used materials in the

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mabualssayed@ut.edu.sa (M.I. Sayyed).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2019.09.185
Received 8 September 2019; Received in revised form 18 September 2019; Accepted 19 September 2019
0272-8842/©2019ElsevierLtdandTechnaGroupS.r.l.Allrightsreserved.

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Y. Al-Hadeethi, et al.
CeramicsInternationalxxx(xxxx)xxx–xxx
nuclear industry because of the material's good casting and machining
characteristics. This is attributed to the interesting features of the
glasses such as environmentally friendly, low production cost, density
of the glasses that can be enhanced by selecting heavy elements such as
Mo, Bi, Sb and Pb, and most importantly glasses are transparent
shielding materials [14]. Currently, research of different glass systems
has been more attractive due to the utilization of these glasses in the
daily life such as electro-optic switches, scintillators and thermo-
luminescent dosimeters, laser technology, solar cells, fiber amplifier
and detectors for gamma photons [15–17].
Germanate glasses are the most interesting glasses due to their
higher unique physical and chemical properties such as glass forming
possibility, low melting point, good transparency, infrared (IR) trans-
mission, high solubility for other metals, and high resistance to hu-
midity [18–20]. Moreover, there is a strong interionic force between
Ge+4 and O−2, germanate glasses. They also have high thermal
stabi-
lity and good chemical solidity to be applied for IR transmitting glasses
[21].
Recently, many researches which developed the composition and
physical properties of germanate glasses such as Guo et al. have in-
vestigated the photoluminescence and optical energy gap for Tb3+
doped GeO2-SiO2-B2O3–Ga2O3 glasses [22]. Baradaran et al. in-
vestigated the structural, thermal, and optical properties of GeO2–PbO-
SrO-AlF3–MgF2 [23]. The addition of Al2O3 to the glass composition
leads to reduce the rate of crystallization of theses glasses [24] and
introducing PbO to the glass structure leads to increase their ability to
be applied as radiation shielding materials [25–27].
In the present work, structure, optical and gamma radiation
shielding features have been investigated. In this regard:
1 Five samples of (90-X)GeO2-XPbO-5Al2O3–5CaO: 0 ≤ X ≤ 40 mol%)
glasses have been fabricated using conventional melt quenching
technique.
2 The structure of the prepared glasses has been examined using XRD
powder diffraction analytical technique.
3 The UV–vis spectra in the range of 190–1100 nm wavelength for the
proposed glasses have been recorded.
4 The band gap of optical energy (Egap) has been evaluated using the
direct method and absorption spectrum fitting (ASF) model.
5 Index of refraction (n), molar polarizability (αMolar), molar re-
fractivity (RMolar), metallization criterion (MCriterion), dielectric
constants (εStatic and εOptical), optical transmission (TOptical), reflec-
tion loss (RLoss), band gap of optical energy based metallization
ASF
criterion M (Egap ), and refractive index based metallization criterion
M (n) have been evaluated.
6 The mass attenuation coefficients (μ/ρ) of all the investigated glasses
for photon energy ranging from 0.356 to 1.33 MeV have been de-
termined using WinXcom software.
7 The effective gamma-ray shielding parameters such as half value
thickness (HVT), linear attenuation coefficients (LAC), effective
atomic number (Zeff), and the tenth value layer (TVL) have been
evaluated.
2. Materials and methods
The (90-X)GeO2-XPbO-5Al2O3–5CaO: X = 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and
40% mol%) glasses have been fabricated by conventional melt
quenching technique. Glasses fabricated procedure has been carried out
using the analytical grade chemicals of GeO -PbO-Al O –CaO with high
2 2 3
purity (99.99%, Sigma-Aldrich) as raw materials. Different combina-
tions based on the nominal composition of glass specimens as shown
in Table 1 have been made. For each glass specimen, chemical
powders were weighted with high accuracy ± 0.0001 using an
electronic bal- ance and miXed together carefully. The mi Xed powder
was melted in a crucible of porcelain at 1200 °C for 60 min to keep its
2
preheated mold of stainless-steel and annealed at 300–350 °C for 24 h
and cooled gradually to avoid the thermal stress and strain created by
heat treatment. The fabricated glasses were coded as GACPb00,
GACPb10, GACPb20, GACPb30, and GACPb40 for X = 0, 10, 20, 30,
and 40 mol%, respectively. The annealed specimens were polished to a
thickness of 3 mm to be ready for optical measurements. Density (ρ) of
the produced glass specimens were measured using Archimedes' con-
ventional method with toluene as liquid medium and the corresponding
molar volume (Vm) has been calculated and collected in Table 1. For all
glasses, X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns where 2ϴ from 10° to 80° were
measured using a Bruker, AXS D8 Advance, (Cu Kα radiation). Using the
Jasco V-576 (Japan) model double-beam spectrophotometer with 190–
1100 nm wavelength, the UV–vis measurements for all proposed glasses
have been carried out.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. XRD measurements, density and molar volume
Fig. 1 shows the XRD patterns for the fabricated glasses GACPb00,
GACPb10, GACPb20, GACPb30, and GACPb40 from down to up. All
spectra portrayed only broadening peak around 2θ ~28 and no sharp
peak was seen. This confirms that atoms or ions in the glasses are in
disorder arrangement proving their amorphous state.
Fig. 2 illustrates density (ρ) and molar volume (Vm) of the fabricated
glasses (GACPb00 – GACPb40) as a function of the PbO mol% content.
As seen in Fig. 2, the (ρ) of the proposed glasses increases linearly with
increasing PbO mol% content. This behavior is attributed to the dif-
ference between the molecular weight of PbO (223.2 g/mol) and of the
substituted GeO2 (104.61 g/mol). On the contrary, the (V m) decreases
with enhancing PbO mol%. This trend can be explained as in GeO2-
PbO glasses, the Ge4+ cations were incorporated as GeO6 and GeO4
units and PbO may also participate with PbO4 units in the glass
network when the Pb ion is linked to four o Xygen atoms in a
covalence bond configuration [28]. Moreover, the conversion of
tetrahedra GeO4 to octahedra GeO6 leads to increase the number of
bridging oXygens with increasing PbO mol% in the glassy network. In
addition, increasing the PbO mol% in the glass composition helps to
decrease the density of non- bridging oXygens (NBO) and the glass
network becomes more robust [29].
3.2. Optical characterizations
3.2.1. Band gap (Egapl) and refractive index (n) calculation
Fig. 3 depicts the optical absorption measurements of the fabricated
glasses (GACPb00 – GACPb40). As it seen in Fig. 3, all spectra were
characterized by two widening peaks in the range of 250–450 nm. With
adding PbO mol% in the glass composition, absorption peak was shifted
to longer wavelength.
In the current study, with help of the absorption spectra which
shown in Fig. 3, the band gap of optical energy for all fabricated glasses
can be calculated directly by evaluating the wavelength cut-o ff (λcut) for
each spectrum. The λcut values can be evaluated by extrapolating the
linear regions of spectra in Fig. 3 at the values where (Absorbance) = 0.
Then the optical energy band gap for each sample can be calculated
using the following relation:
hc
EDirect =
gap
λcut (1)
homogeneity and lose the air bubbles. The melted glass was poured
quickly onto a
 Values of λcut, and EDirect were listed in Table 2. Additionally, in
order to clarify the type of optical transition (indirect or direct gap
transi- tion) for the fabricated specimens, the band gaps of optical
energy were evaluated by another model called absorption
spectrum fitting (ASF).
More details for this method in Refs. [30–33]. In ASF model, the
ASF
band gap of optical energy (E ) can be calculated using the gap
absorbance
data without the need for the glass sample thickness which commonly

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Table 1
Density and Wt. fraction of elements in samples in system (90-X)GeO2-XPbO-5Al2O3–5CaO: 0 ≤ X ≤ 40 mol%) glasses.
3 3
Sample code Density, ρ (g/cm ) Molar volume, Vm (cm /mol) Weight fraction mol% Wt. fraction of elements in each sample

GeO2 PbO Al2O3 CaO O Al Ca Ge Pb

GACPb00 3.42 29.66 90 00 5 5 0.313104 0.026463 0.035735 0.624699 0.000000

GACPb10 4.25 26.67 80 10 5 5 0.289683 0.026463 0.035735 0.555288 0.092832
GACPb20 5.01 25.00 70 20 5 5 0.266262 0.026463 0.035735 0.485877 0.185664
GACPb30 5.56 24.66 60 30 5 5 0.242842 0.026463 0.035735 0.416466 0.278495
GACPb40 6.12 24.35 50 40 5 5 0.219421 0.026463 0.035735 0.347055 0.371327

curves at (Abs./wavelength)1/2 = zero, the wavelength cut-off (λcut)

can be evaluated. Variation of (Abs./wavelength)1/2 with (wave-
length)−1 is illustrated Fig. 4. The λ cut value for each ASF curve was
ASF
evaluated, then the corresponding band gap of optical energy E gap was
ASF
calculated with help of Eq. (2). λ−1, λ cut , and Egap were recorded
in Table 2, where the optical band gap decreases with increasing the
PbO
mol% content.
The linear refractive index (n) can be directly calculated using the
ASF
values of Egapl for the studied glasses as [34]:
2
⎜
⎛ n − 1 ⎞ = 1 − Egap
⎟

n2 20 (3)
⎝ + 2⎠
The values of (n) are collected in Table 2. The (n) values are con-
sidered high (2.59–2.99) and increase with the enhancement of PbO
mol% content in the glasses. Thus, the investigated glasses can be
used as potential candidates for different optical applications.

3.2.2. RMolar, αMolar, TOptical, and RLoss

Based on refractive index (n) and molar volume (Vm) of the
glasses, the molar refractivity (RMolar) and polarizability (αMolar) which
re- presents the number of electrons responding to an electric field
are given by Ref. [35]:
2
Molar ⎛n − 1⎞ Molar RMolar

R = n2 + 2 Vm and α =
⎟

Fig. 1. XRD patterns for GACPb00 – GACPb40 glasses. ⎜

⎠ (4)
⎝ 2.52
Molar
R Molar
and α are listed in Table 3 and plotted in Fig. 5 as a
function of PbO mol% content for the studied glasses. It observed that
Molar
the α is directly proportional to the RMolar.
Also, depending on the (n) values, the TOptical and RLoss of the glasses
can be directly calculated as:
= 2n and RLoss = n − 1 2
T Optical n2 + 1 ⎝⎛ n + 1 ⎠⎞ (5)
Dependence of T Optical
and R on PbO mol% content in GACPb00 -
Loss

GACPb40 glasses is illustrated in Fig. 6 and listed in Table 3. One can

observe that the TOptical is inversely proportional to (RLoss) with PbO
mol% content.

3.2.3. MCriterion, εStatic, εOptical, M (n) and M (Egap

ASF
)
The MCriterion parameter which help to decide that material is me-
tallic, or insulator was calculated by Ref. [36]:
RMolar
MCriterion = 1 −
Vm (6)
The values of M for GACPb00 - GACPb40 have been calcu-
Criterion
Fig. 2. Density and molar volume of GACPb00 – GACPb40 as a function of PbO
mol% content. lated, and shown in Table 3 and drawn in Fig. 7. One can conclude that
our fabricated glasses are non-metallic (insulator) as RMolar < Vm.
The dielectric constants (static (εStaic) and optical (εOptical)) have
could not be measured precisely as [32]: been calculated with the help of the refractive index (n) values via
E ASF [37,38]:
hc 1239.83
= =
gapl
λcut λcut (2) εStatic = n2 and εOptical = εStatic − 1 (7)

By plotting (Abs./wavelength) 1/2

versus (wavelength) −1
for in- direct transition and from extrapolating the straight part of plotting

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The obtained values of εStaic and εOptical for GACPb00 -
GACPb40 glasses are shown in Table 3.

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Fig. 3. UV–vis spectra of GACPb00 – GACPb40 glasses.

In addition, based on the values of (n) and E ASF , the M (n) and
ASF gap 0.1350, 0.1524 and 0.1698 cm2/g for GACPb0, GACPb10, GACPb20,
M (E ) for GACPb00 - GACPb40 glasses have been determined as
gap GACPb30 and GACPb40 glasses respectively. The high values for this
[39]: parameter at 0.356 MeV maybe is an indication of higher interaction

n2 probability between the photons and the GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO glasses

⎛ − 1⎞ ⎛ EgapASF
⎞ 1/2 by photoelectric process since 0.356 MeV is lower than the other en-
ASF
M (n) = 1 − and M (Egap ) = ⎜ ergies and it is known that the photons with low energy have higher
n2 + 2 20 ⎟
⎜ ⎟

(8)
⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠
ASF
The calculated values of M (n) and M (E gap ) are listed in Table 3 and
shown in Fig. 8. Now let us compare the obtained optical parameters
of GACPb00 - GACPb40 glasses with other glassy systems which
contains PbO such as 15ZnO-59.5TeO2-25.5PbO [40] and 80TeO2–
20PbO [41]
glasses. It is observed that the values of RMolar and αMolar for our fab-
ricated glasses were larger than those of 15ZnO-59.5TeO 2-25.5PbO
glass and comparable with those of 80TeO2–20PbO glass. Indeed,
TOptical for the present glasses GACPb00 - GACPb40 was higher than
those of 15ZnO-59.5TeO2 -25.5PbO and 80TeO2–20PbO glasses.
3.3. Gamma radiation shielding characterizations
In order to evaluate the attenuation features of the prepared GeO 2-
PbO-Al2O3–CaO glass system, we used WinXcom software [42] to de-
termine the mass attenuation coefficients (μ/ρ) for photon energy
ran-
ging from 0.356 to 1.33 MeV and results are plotted in Fig. 9. It is
evident that the μ/ρ for all samples are higher at 0.356 MeV than the
other energies considered in the work and equal to 0.1003, 0.1177,
chances of interaction by this process [43]. As the energy changes from
0.356 to 0.662 MeV, rapid decreases in μ/ρ values can be noticed (for
example for GACPb40, the μ/ρ decreases from 0.1698 to 0.08715 cm2/
g). Also, it is noticed that at high energies, μ/ρ decreases very slowly
and this is attributed to Compton scatting (for GACPb40, the μ/ρ de-
creases from 0.0548 to 0.0535 at the last two energies). Based on Fig. 9,
the μ/ρ of the GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO glasses increases with the PbO
content increase at all energies. However, this increase is more notable
at low energies. As an example, we examined the effect of PbO on the μ/
ρ at 0.356 and 1.275 MeV. At the first energy, when the PbO changes
from 0 to 40 mol%, μ/ρ increases from 0.1003 to 0.1698 cm2/g (the
difference is 0.0695), while the difference at 1.275 MeV is only
0.002).
From the prepared samples, it could be noticed that GACPb40 has the
biggest μ/ρ which implies that this sample has superior photon at-
tenuation capability.
In Fig. 10, the linear attenuation coefficient (μ) of the GeO2-PbO-
Al2O3–CaO glasses against the PbO content is plotted. It could be no-
ticed that μ increases with the increase in the PbO content. The rate of
increasing μ is pronounced at 0.356 MeV, while at the other energies, it

Table 2
Wavelength cut-off, energy band gap, and refractive index in direct and ASF methods for the studied glassy system.
Direct method (Fig. 3) ASF method (Fig. 4)
1239.83 n
E ASF = = 1239.83 × λ−1(eV)
−1
λcut, nm EDirect
−1 =
hc
(eV) n λ ,
nm
gap gap λcut
λcut

GACPb00 580 2.15 2.67 0.0019 2.35 2.59

GACPb10 620 2.00 2.73 0.0018 2.23 2.64

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GACPb20 780 1.59 2.93 0.0015 1.86 2.79
GACPb30 810 1.53 2.97 0.0013 1.61 2.92
GACPb40 840 1.48 3.00 0.0012 1.49 2.99

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Fig. 4. Variation of (Abs./Wavelength)1/2 with (Wavelength)−1 for GACPb00 – GACPb40

glasses.

increases with slower rate. The explanation of the dependence of μ on

the PbO mol% can be related to the density; as the density of the glasses
increases from 3.42 to 6.12 g/cm3 with the addition of PbO, and it is
known that the μ depends linearly on the density of the glasses.
Therefore, the highest density glass sample (GACPb40) possesses the
highest μ at all energies (8.6843 cm−1 at 0.356 MeV
and 0.3275 cm at 1.33 MeV). Also, as we found in the previous
−1

curve, μ decreases with increasing the energy which agrees with

Lambert-Beer
Law [44].
The effective atomic number for the GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO glasses
is also calculated using the following relation [45]:
∑ i fi A i ()μ

Zeff =
ρ i

()
j jA μρ
∑ f j Zj j (9)

where fi denotes the fractional abundance of the element i relative to

the number of atoms, Ai is the atomic weight, and Zi is the atomic
number.
Fig. 11 shows the Zeff of the current samples between 0.356 and
1.33 MeV. The higher the Zeff, the better the glass under consideration
for radiation protection aims.
The figure shows that all the current samples have relatively high
Zeff at low energy due to photoelectric phenomenon. The Zeff reduces
with the increase in energy which implies that the photons have higher
probability of interaction with the glasses at low energy [46]. Based on
Fig. 11, the Zeff increased with more amount of PbO at all energies. This
is attributed to replacement of GeO2 by PbO (Z for Ge and Pb is 32 and
Fig. 5. Dependence of RMolar and αMolar on PbO mol% content in GACPb00 –
GACPb40 glasses.
82 respectively). The lead o Xide effectively increases the Zeff and this is
clear if we notice the GACPb00 and GACPb40. For these two samples,
the Zeff at 0.356 MeV is 16.02 and 30.76, whereas, at 0.662 MeV these
values are 15.58 and 23.71. According to the data presented in Zeff
figure, we can conclude that the photons have the lowest and highest
penetrating ability when interact with GACPb00 and GACPb40 samples

Table 3
gap

Molar Molar Loss Optical Criterion Static Optical ASF

R , α , R , T , M , ε , ε , M(n), M(E ) of the studied glasses.
Physical parameter GACPb00 GACPb10 GACPb20 GACPb30 GACPb40 [28] [29]

Molar 3
Molar refractivity, R (cm /mol) 22.00 19.98 19.34 19.50 19.47 16.76 20.96
Molar
Molar polarizability, α ×10−24 cm3 8.733 7.932 7.675 7.741 7.728 6.65 8.32
Reflection loss, RLoss 0.197 0.203 0.224 0.240 0.249 0.686 0.703
Optical transmission, TOptical 0.670 0.661 0.633 0.611 0.600 0.185 0.174
Metallization criterion, M 0.258 0.250 0.226 0.208 0.200 0.360 0.284

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Static dielectric constant, εStatic 6.75 6.98 7.83 8.57 8.99 6.32 5.19
Optical dielectric constant, εOptical 5.75 5.98 6.83 7.57 7.99 5.320 –
Refractive index-based metallization criterion, M(n) 0.342 0.333 0.304 0.283 0.272 – 0.378
Optical energy band gap-based metallization criterion, M(E ASF 0.058 0.055 0.046 0.040 0.037 – 0.071
gap )

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Fig. 6. Dependence of RLoss and TOptical on PbO mol% content in GACPb00 –

GACPb40 glasses.
Fig. 9. The mass attenuation coefficient (cm2/g) for the GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO
glass system.

Fig. 7. Dependence of M and εStatic on PbO mol% content in GACPb00 –

GACPb40 glasses.

Fig. 10. The linear attenuation coefficient (cm−1) as a function of the PbO
concentration for the GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO glass system.

is a problem, the lower HVT is the better shielding characteristics

[47,48]. For the GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO glasses, we used Eq. (10) to
estimate the HVT [12]:

0.693
HVT =
μ (10)

The variation of HVT with the density of the samples is exhibited in

Fig. 8. Dependence of M (n) and M (E ASF ) on PbO mol% content in GACPb00 –
gap
GACPb40 glasses.
respectively.
Half value thickness (HVT) is one of the great significance photons
shielding features of the medium, particularly where space availability
Fig. 12. The HVT decreases sharply with density at 0.356 and
0.662 MeV while it decreases slowly at the other energies. This means
that the density of the samples plays a very important role of the HVT
values, and thus the thickness of the samples that is used to block or
attenuate the photons. For example, HVT of GACPb00 and GACPb10
are lower than GACPb40 at the same energy due to the difference in the
density. Hence, high density of the sample obviously affects the HVT
and reduces the thickness that required attenuating photons and this is
important in case of a limited space. The minimum HVT for each
sample occurs at 0.356 MeV and equals to 2.020, 1.385, 1.025, 0.818
and 0.667 cm for GACPb00, GACPb10, GACPb20, GACPb30 and
GACPb40 respectively. While, the maximum HVT of these samples
occurs at 1.33 MeV and equals to 3.932, 3.133, 2.633, 2.350 and

9

Fig. 11. The effective atomic number for the GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO glass
system.
Fig. 12. The half value thickness (cm) as a function of the density for the GeO2-
PbO-Al2O3–CaO glass system.
2.116 cm.
Similar to HVT, we can evaluate the tenth value layer (TVL) which
represents the thickness of the glass that can attenuate 90% of the
photons. It can be calculated using the following relation:
2.303
TVL =
μ (11)
Fig. 13 presents the TVL for the GeO2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO glasses at the
investigated energies. The trend of TVL and HVL are similar as can be
noticed from this figure. It is obvious that TVL increases with increasing
the energy and this means that the thickness of the samples must be
increased in order to block the higher energy photons. Also, Fig. 13
shows that there is a reduction trend in the TVL with an increase in PbO
content. GACPb0 has the biggest TVL and GACPb40 has the smallest
TVL values. For instance, TVL for GACPb0 compared with GACPb40
decreased from 6.71 to 13.07 cm to 2.22 and 7.03 cm at the lowest and
highest energy values respectively. These values confirm which we
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Fig. 13. The tenth value layer (cm) as a function of the density for the GeO2-
PbO-Al2O3–CaO glass system.
GACPb40 is the best sample that can be developed as radiation
shielding glasses.
4. Conclusion
Five samples of (90-X)GeO2-XPbO-5Al2O3–5CaO: 0 ≤ X ≤ 40 mol
%) glassy system have been fabricated by conventional melt
quenching technique and coded as GACPb00 – GACPb40 according to X
value. XRD measurements proved that fabricated glasses were in
amorphous state. The UV–vis spectra in the range of 190–1100 nm
wavelength for the proposed glasses have been recorded. Based on
absorption spectra
measurements, the band gap of optical energy (Egap) has been evaluated
using the ASF model. The Egap values were varied from 2.35 to 1.49 eV,
while Index of refraction (n) was from 2.59 to 2.99. Molar
Molar
polarizability (α ), molar refractivity (RMolar), metallization
criterion (M Criterion
), dielectric constants (εStatic and εOptical), optical
transmission (TOptical),
reflection loss (RLoss) have been calculated. In addition, band gap of
ASF
optical energy based metallization criterion M (E gap ), and refractive
index based metallization criterion M (n) have been evaluated. Results
reveal that all optical properties of GACPb00 – GACPb40 glasses di-
rectly depend of the PbO mol% content. WinXcom program was used to
report the photons shielding parameters (μ/ρ, Zeff, HVT and TVL) for
the present samples. The μ/ρ of the GACPb00-40 glasses increases with
the increase of the PbO content at all energies, however, this increase is
more notable at low energies. The GeO 2-PbO-Al2O3–CaO samples have
relatively high Zeff at low energy due to photoelectric phenomenon. The
Zeff for GACPb00 and GACPb40 at 0.356 MeV is 16.02 and 30.76, and
at 0.662 MeV these values are 15.58 and 23.71. The results also
revealed
that the density of the samples plays a very important role of the
thickness of the samples that should be used to block or attenuate the
found in the previous curves that the sample with highest PbO content has
superior photons attenuation capability. According to TVL curves,
 CeramicsInternation
photons. GACPb40 has the biggest μ/ρ and lowest HVT which implies
that this sample has superior photon attenuation capability.

Declaration of interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial

interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgment

This project was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research

1

(DSR), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, under grant No. (D-310-130-
1440). The authors, therefore, gratefully acknowledge the DSR tech-
nical and financial support.
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