Electrical and gamma ray shielding properties of phospho-tellurite glasses doped with alkali and transition metal oxides

Abstract

This article presents investigated results on physical, electrical and gamma radiation shielding properties of glasses of composition, (P2O5)0.25-(TeO2)0.5-x-(Na2O)0.1- (ZnO)0.15-(CoO)x (x= 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, 030 and 0.35) were synthesized by melt quenching procedure. After confirming non-crystallinity, density was measured and found it to be decreased with increase of CoO concentration in the range 4.0370 gm/cm3 - 3.5673 gm/cm3. Molar volume, mean distance between TMIs, small polaron radius, oxygen packing density and field strength were estimated. Conductivity was measured in the temperature range 303K -663K. High temperature conductivity is found to be varied as per Mott’s (SPH) model. High temperature activation energy is found to be increased with CoO content. Low temperature conductivity variation has been analyzed using Mott’s (VRH) model. Gamma ray shielding parameters were evaluated using Phy-X/PSD software for the energy range 0.005 MeV-15 MeV. The mass and linear attenuation coefficients were found to decrease with CoO content and photon energy. Half and tenth value layers increased with increase of mole fractions of CoO. All the observed shielding parameters are superior to those reported previously for other glasses. The glass with x=0.10 is best suited for the utility of gamma shielding at low energy.