New trends in gamma ray shielding features of silicate tellurite glass using cerium oxide nanoparticles reinforcement (xCeO₂-20SiO₂-(80-x)TeO₂); (x = 10, 15, 20 and 25)

In this work, we investigated the gamma ray shielding features of xCeO₂-0.2SiO₂-(80-x)TeO₂ glass using DFT and phy-x/PSD approach. Optimization of the silicate-tellurite glass samples were done by adding CeO₂ in W% of 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25 % respectively. Based on the obtained results, the density and gamma ray shielding properties of the CeSiTe glass increased with W% of CeO₂ nanoparticles. Reduction in the oxygen parking fraction from 74.240 to 65.012 g/atom when CeO₂ concentration was increased from 0.10 to 0.25 W% confirmed the loose structure of the CeSiTe glass. With respect to photon attenuation parameters, the lowest value of half value layer (3.20 cm) by CeSiTe4 revealed its superior attenuation power than CeSiTe1 whose half value layer is 7.74 cm. As observed, photoelectric effect dominated the range 0–40 KeV, Compton scattering is dominant between 27.2 and 100 KeV while pair production dominated energies greater than 1.5 MeV. We also observed that the HVL of the presently studied CeSiTe glass is comparable to that of lead silicate glasses (xSiO₂-(1-x)PbO₂). Generally, the obtained attenuation parameters were also found to be similar to that of lead silicate glass, hence CeSiTe glass can be good alternative to lead silicate glasses for gamma ray shielding.