High-density and transparent boro-tellurite glass system against ionizing radiation: Fabrication and extensive characterization studies

Abstract

Lately, high-density glass systems have attracted the utmost attention of the scientific community for radiation protection purposes. With this motivation, the present study aims at preparing the boro-tellurite (BT) glass systems with (5+x)B2O3+ (95-x)TeO2 where x equals 0, 5, 10, and 15 mol%. For synthesizing the glass series coded B5T95 to B20T80, the traditional melting technique via a lift furnace was carried out. After that, the synthesized samples were thoroughly explored by evaluating physical, structural, thermal, and radiation protection aspects for revealing the differences in the parameters. According to the physical property findings, it was evident that the samples from B5T95 to B20T80 had density values of 5.4751, 5.3214, 5.1711, and 4.9982 g cm−3, respectively. In addition to physical properties, the presence of an amorphous structure was visible in each glass series from B5T95 to B20T80 samples with regard to the XRD patterns. Furthermore, FT-IR spectra clearly revealed the existence of different bond types, including B–O, B–O–B, Te–O, Te–O–Te, and O–Te–O. On the other hand, glass transition temperatures for B5T95, B10T90, B15T85, and B20T80 glasses were found to be 322, 336, 334, and 341 °C, respectively, according to the typical DSC curves. Besides that, the crystalline phase (α-TeO2) in sample B20T80 was directly developed from the glass during heat treatment. Lastly, the impact of B2O3 on the BT glass systems' radiation shielding efficiency was evaluated using Phy-X/PSD software, and the findings were compared with the alternative ones. All in all, the authors strongly agree that the findings are very critical for enhancing radiation shielding glass systems.