We analyzed the mechanical properties and radiation-shielding performance of a lithium zinc bismuth silicate glass system. The composition of these glasses is 20ZnO-30Li2O-(50-x)SiO2-xBi2O3 (x varies between 10 and 40 mol%). The mechanical properties of the investigated glass system, such as Young's modulus (E), bulk modulus (K), shear modulus (S), and longitudinal modulus (L), were determined using the Makishima-Mackenzie model. The elastic moduli gradually decreased with the addition of Bi2O3. E decreased from 46 to 31 GPa, K decreased from 27 to 14 GPa, S decreased from 19 to 14 GPa, and L decreased from 52 to 32 GPa as Bi2O3 was substituted for SiO2. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) was investigated at energies between 0.284 and 1.33 MeV to understand the radiation-shielding performance of the glasses. The MAC value increased when SiO2 was replaced by Bi2O3. We found that the effect of Bi2O3 on MAC values was noticeably stronger at energies of 0.284 and 0.347 MeV, while the effect of Bi2O3 on MAC values became weaker as energy increased. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) results demonstrated that if the samples were exposed to low-energy photons, the glass could prevent the penetration of photons, and thus, the glass samples were effective in radiation protection. The LAC values for the lowest- and highest-density samples changed from 0.998 to 1.976 cm-1 (at 0.284 MeV) and from 0.286 to 0.424 cm-1 (at 0.826 MeV). According to the radiation-shielding results, the thick, high-density glass sample has special and distinctive shielding properties.
Keywords: Makishima–Mackenzie model; attenuation factors; bismuth silicate glasses; gamma radiation; radiation protection.