Assessment of structural, physical properties as well as radiation safety competence of lithium borate glass-ceramics: Experimental and theoretical evaluation

Abstract

Samples of lithium borate glass-ceramics with a composition of 40Li2B4O7 + xBi2O3 + (55-x) ZrO4 + 5CaWO4 (x = 10–50 wt%) have been fabricated via ordinary melt quenching route. The physical and structural features have been investigated. Radiation shielding competence has been examined experimentally using an Ultra Ge detector with the 133Ba (3 Ci) radioisotope source and theoretically via EpiXS software. X-ray diffraction showed that the structure of the B1 sample has large crystal particle sizes. However, the structure with the smallest amount of ZrO4 and the largest amount of Bi2O3 has become completely amorphous (sample B5). The density of the synthesized samples were noticed to change between 4.70 to 5.99 g cm−3 for B1 and B5 samples, respectively. The B5 sample with high density possessed the highest mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) among other samples. There is an agreement between experimental and theoretical data. The trend of the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) is the same as that of the MAC. At any certain energy, the half-value layer (HVL) is arranged as; (HVL)B5 > (T1/2)B4 > (T1/2)B3 > (T1/2)B2 > (T1/2)B1. The mean free path (MFP) of the investigated samples is similar to that of the HVL. The recommended glass ceramics can be used as radiation shielding materials.