This study aimed to have a wide-range investigation on changes of optical, structural, mechanical durability and nuclear radiation attenuation properties of barium borosilicate glasses through BaO reinforcement. Accordingly, gamma-ray attenuation parameters of a series of glasses with the nominal composition of xBaO-(50-x)B2O3–20NaO–15SiO2–10CaO–5Al2O3 (x= 0, 5, 10, 20 and 30 wt%) were extensively evaluated using experimental, simulation and theoretical methods. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) of glasses were experimentally measured using NaI (Tl) (3×3 inch) detector. LAC values of Ba00, Ba05, Ba10, Ba20 and Ba30 glasses were reported as 0.4951, 1.0129, 1.5780, 2.8795 and 4.4203 at 81 keV and 0.1030, 0.1084, 0.1148, 0.1278, and 0.1397 at 2614 keV, respectively. Accordingly, obtained results were compared with the XCOM program and FLUKA general purpose Monte Carlo simulation code at photon energies from 81 to 2614 keV. Furthermore, LAC values were used to calculate other related parameters including MAC, X1/2, and λ. Comparatively higher density (3.652 g/cm3), greater LAC, MAC and lower both X1/2, and λ values achieved for Ba30 glass indicated it as a better gamma shield. The outcomes of mechanical durability investigations showed that replacing B2O3 with BaO resulted in a decrease in the flow movement that leads to an increase in the density of the crosslinking as well as the observed difference in the atomic mass B and the atomic mass of Ba and thus increase the hardness Moreover, the vibrational modes of theses samples are active in four IR spectral peaks related to the compositions. Moreover, the optical parameters of these samples have been calculated. The results also showed that an enhancement of the transmittance was observed since optical band gap increases as BaO content increases.
