Influence of transition metals on the radiation shielding capability of Eu3+ ions doped telluro borophosphate glasses

Abstract

The present investigation is focused on the synthesis and analyses of Eu3+ doped strontium telluro borophosphate glasses for effective shielding. Out of the prepared glasses, Nb added glass shows a closely packed structure with higher elastic moduli suggesting that it can withstand longitudinal stress. The average coordination number values decline with the structural modification from 4.319 to 3.737 which explains BOs being created in the solid system. The MC simulation code estimates the attenuation coefficient for the samples and illustrates certain metal oxides' behaviour in enhancing the radiation shielding properties of the fabricated glasses. This investigation shows Nb2O5 containing glasses have the best impact on the fabricated glasses' radiation shielding properties, where the produced glasses’ LAC was in the 29.609–0.193 cm−1 range. Also, a thickness of 3 cm from the aforementioned glass has the ability to attenuate over 62.5 %, and 43.9 of the emitted photons with Eγ values of 0.867 MeV and 2.506 MeV, respectively. On the other hand, the metal oxide with the lowest shielding enhancement is ZnO, where its LAC reduced from 22.896 to 0.176 cm−1 with a γ-photon energy increase of 0.01 and 2.506 MeV, respectively.