Gamma ray interaction of optical, chemical, physical behavior of bismuth silicate glasses and their radiation shielding proficiency using Phy-X / PSD program

•Bismuth silicate glasses obtain good optical, physical, structural and chemical stability against gamma radiation.•The Pb2+ glass is preferable for gamma and neutron attenuation than Ba2+ and Sr2+ glasses.•The high polarizability of heavy Bi3+ and Pb2+ ions provide their shielding behavior through catching and healing the excited electrons.•Good agreement between experimental shielding parameters and theoretical Phy-X/PSD software.•The glasses reveal excellent shielding parameters e.g. Zeff, Neff and Ceff in addition to, an acceptable optical transparency and chemical durability. Three compositions of lithium bismuth silicate glasses containing either 2% PbO, BaO or SrO (all in wt. %) were studied to investigate some of their optical, chemical, and physical properties before and after gamma irradiation. Optical UV transmission, FTIR and ESR spectra have been analyzed and discussed. Also, chemical durability before and after gamma irradiation in acidic, alkaline and neutral solutions has been studied. The results showed relative stability of the glasses on UV-visible, FTIR and ESR spectra. Additionally, good chemical durability in the three leaching solutions was observed especially in the alkaline medium. Many shielding parameters have been investigated such as; mass attenuation coefficient that has been measured experimentally and calculated theoretically using NaI (Tl) detector and Phy-X/PSD software, respectively and the results showed a good agreement of the experimental and theoretical values. Also, some other important shielding parameters have been calculated using the Phy-X/PSD program.