In the present study, the mass attenuation coefficient ( μ _m ) has been calculated analytically for a locally developed shielding material, polyboron, and compared with the values obtained from the WinXCom code, a Windows version of the XCOM database at the photon energy range 0.001 MeV–20 MeV. A good agreement has been observed between these two values. The linear attenuation coefficients ( μ ) and relaxation lengths (λ) have also been calculated from the obtained μ _m values and their variations with photon energy have been plotted. For comparison, other four shielding materials- ordinary concrete, pure polyethylene, borated polyethylene and water have also been studied. The obtained result shows that μ _m , μ and λ strongly depends on the photon energy, chemical composition and density of the shielding materials. The values of μ _m and μ of polyboron have been found greater than those of pure polyethylene and borated polyethylene but less than those of ordinary concrete and water at low photon energy range; and at the intermediate photon energy range (0.125 MeV–6 MeV), all the sample materials have approximately the same μ _m values. It has also been noticed that polyboron has the medial relaxation length (λ) over the entire photon energy range. The total mass attenuation coefficient ( μ _m ) and linear attenuation coefficient ( μ ), Half Value Layer (HVL) and Tenth Value Layer (TVL) of the five sample materials for some common gamma sources have been worked out and the transmission curves have been plotted. The curves exhibit that the transmission factor of the sample materials decreases with the increase in shielding thickness. The results of this study can be utilized to comprehend the shielding effectiveness of this locally developed material.

Due to the development of nuclear technology with time, various beneficial applications of different types of radiations in medicine, industry, agriculture and research as well as for nuclear power generation are increasing day by day. But a drawback to these peaceful uses of radiation is that if it is exposed to the personnel including other human beings, who are in vicinity of it beyond its permissible dose limit, a deleterious effect may be observed in them. When radiation is exposed to organs or tissues, it loses some its energy through different kinds of interactions and this loss of energy may ionize the atoms of the cell, destroying the normal chemical equilibrium of the cell and eventually can bring death to the cell. Therefore, the radiation must be attenuated enough to protect the personnel from the harmful effects caused by it and also enable them to work by using an apposite shielding material. The shielding used for this purpose is generally known as biological shielding.

To design and choose an appropriate biological shielding, it is necessary to have known its nuclear, structural and physical properties and also the characteristics of radiation impinging on it. The nuclear parameters that must be known to design and choose a shielding material are total mass attenuation coefficient ( μ_m μ m ), linear attenuation coefficient ( μ ) for gamma rays which is related to Half Value Layer (HVL), Tenth Value Layer (TVL) and mean free path (λ). Many research workers have determined the values of different shielding parameters in various ways ( Akkurt et al., 2010 , El-Khayatt, 2010 , El-Khayatt and Akkurt, 2013 , Elmahroug et al., 2013 , Kucuk et al., 2012 , Madhusudhan Rao et al., 2013 , Md. Fakarudin et al., 2011 , Singh and Badiger, 2014 and Yılmaz et al., 2011 ) to know the shielding effectiveness of the shielding materials developed with time.

It is widely known that hydrogenous materials are used as neutron shielding for their effectiveness of neutron moderation. When boron is added to these hydrogenous materials, it promotes the absorption of neutron and reduces secondary gamma radiation. On the basis of this, a neutron shielding material, termed “polyboron” was locally developed. The compositions of this material are polyethylene, boron ester and paraffin wax at a ratio of 16.5 : 37.5 : 46 by weight percentage. The density of this material is 0.971 g/cm³ which is somewhat less than water density (1.0 g/cm³). Some of the shielding properties of this locally developed material have been studied experimentally ( Ahmed et al., 1992 and Huda et al., 1998 ). But almost no reports have been carried out on the μ_m μ m , μ , λ λ , HVL, TVL for different photon energies. The main objectives of the present study are to determine the values of above parameters and to represent a comparison of shielding effectiveness of the sample materials used in the present work at different photon energy.