Gallium (III) oxide reinforced novel heavy metal oxide (HMO) glasses: A focusing study on synthesis, optical and gamma-ray shielding properties

Abstract

In this study, three heavy metal oxide glasses (A:46.0PbO-42.0Bi2O3-12.0Ga2O3,B:45.94PbO-42.66Bi2O3-10.0Ga2O3-1.4BaO, C:72.8PbO-17.0GeO2-10.2Ga2O3) were synthesized to determine their optical and gamma-ray shielding properties in terms of assessing their potential applications in medical and industrial radiation facilities. Glasses were synthesized using melt quenching method. The optical band gap energy is calculated by the absorption spectrum measured at room temperature. We found a large band at 500 nm that refers to Bi+ions and appears to samples A and B that contain Bi2O3 in their compositions. Optical band gap energies were reported as 2.014 ev, 2.055 eV and 2.430 eV for A, B and C samples, respectively. Next, fundamental gamma-ray parameters were also determined using MCNPX general Monte Carlo code and Phy-X/PSD in 0.15–15 MeV photon energy. Our findings clearly showed that the B sample, which includes the highest concentration of Bi2O3, has a considerable advantage in terms of gamma-ray attenuation. Moreover, the results also showed that sample B has significantly higher attenuation properties than shielding concretes and several glass shields. It can be concluded that Bi2O3 is a useful component for heavy metal oxide glasses in terms of improving gamma-ray shielding capabilities for radiation shielding applications.