A synergistic effect of heavy metal oxides to enhance the physical, optical, and radiation-absorption properties of TeO2-Li2O-BaO glasses

Abstract

A series of 75TeO2-(20-x)Li2O-xBaO glasses was successfully synthesized using the melt-quenching method. The glass samples were labeled as TLB05, TLB10, TLB15, TLB20 and TLB25 for x = 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mol% respectively. The prepared glasses were studied for their structural, optical, and radiation shielding properties. The optical band gap of the glasses decreased linearly from 3.45 to 3.28 eV with BaO in the range 5−25 mol%. The analysis of the thermal properties shows an increase in Tg values with the replacement of Li2O by BaO. The gamma ray shielding coefficients for the glasses estimated by FLUKA simulation and validated by XCOM varied from 0.0329 to 1.4383 cm2g−1, 0.0332 – 1.4879 cm2g−1, 0.0334 – 1.5327 cm2g−1, 0.0335 – 1.5671 cm2g−1, and 0.0336 – 1.5964 cm2g−1 for BaO concentration of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% respectively. Generally, the introduction of BaO improved the photon and charged particles (electron, proton, alpha particle, carbon ions) absorbing parameters of the glasses. The fast neutron removal cross section of the TLB glasses grew from 0.0995 to 0.1014 cm−1 as the molar concentration of BaO declines from 25 to 5 mol%. The increase in the BaO content also quenched the thermal neutron absorption cross section. For TLB5 – TLB25, the coherent, incoherent, absorption, and total thermal neutron cross sections varied between 1.0582 and 1.2059 cm−1, 0.1251 – 0.0024 cm−1, 9.5411 – 0.0876 cm−1, and 10.7244 – 1.2958 cm−1 accordingly. In general, TLB25 displayed the most effective photon shielding ability but the weakest neutron absorber. The TLB glasses in addition showed superior radiation shielding ability compared to some conventional shields.