Experimental and numerical assessment on Pb-free alkaline mixed borate glasses for radiation resisting applications

Abstract

Melt quenching technique has been used to fabricate calcium boro-phosphate glasses doped with praseodymium oxide ions. With increased P2O5 content, structural parameters like oxygen molar volume (Vo) and oxygen packing density (OPD) indicate an opposing trend. In addition to optical factors like optical electronegativity, absorption edge, and direct and indirect bandgap values being estimated and discussed, optical absorption spectra have been recorded for all the glasses. The presence of ionic bond behaviour confirms the strong structural and optical property changes caused by the P2O5 content. Using the Phy-X software application, the radiation shielding parameters were investigated. The incorporation of B2O3, CaCO3, and P2O5 offers more number of bridging oxygens which further leads to closely packed nature. Considering the glass sample B0PCM:Pr, the highest linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) is determined. The LAC results showed that at high energy levels, the glass's shielding performance became more consistent. The results of the effective atomic number analysis demonstrated the impact that CaCO3 has on the glass's shielding effectiveness, with a higher concentration of CaCO3 improving the material's defence against gamma radiation. For B0PCM:Pr glass, the half value layer (HVL) rises from 2.101 to 3.444 cm at 0.284–1.333 MeV. Certainly, it has been observed that the glass tends to have a smaller HVL when it contains more CaCO3 with lesser P2O5 content.