Impact of the As2O3/B2O3 ratio on the structure and optical features of As2O3–NiO–Na2O–B2O3 glass

Abstract

The impact of the As2O3/B2O3 ratio on the microstructure, linear and nonlinear optical parameters of nickel borate glass was carefully investigated for the As2O3–NiO–Na2O–B2O3 system. The As2O3 content of the present glass were varied from 0 to 16 mol%, while the glass modifiers of Na2O and glass intermediate of NiO were fixed at 18 and 1 mol%, respectively. Based on the structural investigations, the density increased from 2.52 gcm−3 to 2.95 gcm−3 and the molar volume increased from 27.11 cm3.mol−1 to 30.07 cm3.mol−1 with increasing As2O3/B2O3 ratios. Additionally, the presence of Ni2+ ions as NiO6 units was confirmed by the brown color originating from the absorption band observed at 421–428 nm in the optical absorbance of the studied glass. Furthermore, the Ni3+ ions do not participate in the coloring of the glass. Moreover, the fundamental absorption edges of the glass shift towards lower energy values with increasing As2O3/B2O3 concentrations, confirming the decreased behavior of the band gaps. Furthermore, the nonlinear refractive index increases with the increased As2O3/B2O3 concentrations. Additionally, the ligand field parameters of Ni cations, such as the ligand field splitting parameter and Racah parameter, exhibit opposite behaviors upon introducing additional As2O3/B2O3 ratio. A decrease in values of the ligand field splitting, while the Racah parameter exhibits increased values. The observed outcomes demonstrate a tendency of the bonds connecting the Ni ions and their ligands to possess higher degrees of ionic nature. Besides, the ionizing radiation properties for the prepared glasses were studied using online “Phy-X″ software in the energy range of 0.248–1.33 MeV. The ionizing radiation shielding invistigations showed enhanced parameters with further As2O3 additives. Where, with increasing the amount of As2O3 from 0 mol% to 16 mol%, there are increases in the mass attenuation coefficient values. Additionally, the half value layer values of the studied glass samples are lower than the values of most standard ionizing radiation shielding materials. The effective As2O3/ B2O3 ratio enhanced structure, optical and radiation shielding parameters of the present glass system, making these glasses suitable for ionizing radiation shielding applications.