Common shielding materials against highly penetrating radiations like X-rays and gamma photons are concrete and aggregates made of lead. On the other hand, concrete ages and turns opaque, and lead is costly and chemically dangerous. These and other factors have fueled the ongoing quest for substitute radiation shielding materials, and glasses have been produced with success. Mineral ores containing glass sand and bismuth ore have been generated by small-scale mining in Nigeria. Analysis of the ore found that 85.20% of the bismuth ore (Bi₂O₂CO₃) and glass sand was constituted of 78.99% silica. The novel glass series was made from silica derived from glass sand and included bismutite and barium oxide as dopants to alter the desired properties of the glass. With the empirical chemical formula (100-y){85[25(glass sand)+35B2O3+40Na2CO3]+15BaO}y[Bi2O2CO3], where 5≤y≥25 wt.%. The glass series was created via the melt quenching process. Measurements of optical characteristics, X-ray attenuation, and thermal analysis of the glass systems were used to characterize the new glass. The glass system has refractive index values of 2.23-2.49. The produced glass was thermally stable. All glass samples were subjected to the X-ray attenuation experiment of radiation shielding parameters, specifically the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half value layer (HVL), and tenth value layer (TVL), at photon energies ranging from 40 to 80 kVp. The results indicate that the LAC and MAC of the glass samples decrease and increase as the photon energies increase from 40 to 80 kVp, while TVL and HVL increase and decrease as the photon energy increases (tube voltage). It is shown that the innovative glasses have higher performance in radiation shielding.

Keywords: Barium Oxide, bismutite, glass sand, optical, radiation shielding parameters, TGA and X-rays Radiation.