Effect of MoO3 on The Radiation Shielding Properties of Bismuth Boro-Tellurite Glass (B2O3-TeO2-Bi2O3-Li2O): Theoretical and Simulation Studies

O. A. Putra (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Diponegoro University, Semarang, 50275, Indonesia)
R. H. Asiah (Department of Radiology, dr. Kariadi Central General Hospital, Semarang, 50244, Indonesia)
H. Sutanto (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Diponegoro University, Semarang, 50275, Indonesia)
S. Faniandari (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Diponegoro University, Semarang, 50275, Indonesia)
E. B. Yutomo (Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Diponegoro University, Semarang, 50275, Indonesia)

Atom Indonesia
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This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of bismuth boro-tellurite glass modified with molybdenum oxide (MoO3) as a gamma-ray shielding material in the (50-x)B2O3-10TeO2-30Bi2O3-10Li2O-xMoO3 (x = 0, 4, 8, 12, and 16 mol%) glass system. Five designed compositions (x = 0-16 mol%) were evaluated over 0.01-15 MeV using XCOM (NIST) and Phy-X/PSD for derived shielding metrics. The calculation results from both programs agreed closely with a maximum difference of only 0.037%, confirming numerical consistency of MAC across tools. Estimated glass density increased with MoO3 content from 5.666 to 5.948 g/cm3 (BBTM1 to BBTM5), which raised LAC and improved thickness indicators. The results showed that at 0.05 MeV the highest LAC was recorded for BBTM5 (38.085 cm-1) compared with BBTM1-BBTM4 (35.364-37.409 cm-1), and at 1.00 MeV the HVL decreased from 1.789 cm (BBTM1) to 1.736 cm (BBTM5). Sample BBTM5, with the highest MoO3 concentration, consistently exhibited higher LAC and larger Zeff/Neff across energies, and a lower Transmission Factor (TF) across representative radioisotope energies (0.662-2.506 MeV), indicating superior gamma-ray shielding effectiveness.