Influence of various gamma-ray doses on radiation shielding, thermal, mechanical, structural, and optical properties of tellurite, borate, and boro-tellurite glasses modified with molybdenum and strontium oxide

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the effects of gamma radiation ranges from 2.5 to 100 kGy and different percentages of TeO2 on the radiation-shielding, mechanical, optical, and structural features of borate glass modified with molybdenum and strontium oxide. Different equipment was employed in this study. The gamma-ray doses changed the color of the glass samples and became darker as the dose increased. The mechanical features of borate glass are superior to boro-tellurite and tellurite glass, and Young's modulus values are 18.903, 44.113, and 68.912 GPa for tellurite, boro-tellurite, and tellurite, respectively. Simultaneously, the mechanical characteristics of all glass systems improved after exposure to a gamma dosage of up to 2.5 kGy, followed by a reduction in these features after raising the dose to 50 and 100 kGy. At the same time, borate glass is the most thermally stable of the three types of glasses, followed by boro tellurite and tellurite glasses. Exposing glass systems to various gamma-ray doses reduces band gaps, while adding TeO2, instead of borate, reduced the band gap from 2.00 to 2.27 eV. The FTIR and Raman spectroscopy showed different vibrations bands attributed to diversity between borate and tellurite, while the diverse gamma-ray doses do not change the band positions. On another side, the shielding features for glass systems were explored theoretically and experimentally. The results showed good compatibility between the two methods, and the relative difference ranged from 0 to 9%. The tellurite glass showed the highest radiation shielding features than boro-tellurite and borate, and the MAC values for borate, boro-tellurite, and borate are 0.165, 0.264, and 0.321 cm2/g at 184 keV. On another side, the borate and boro-tellurite glass samples didn't show any variation in experimental mass attenuation coefficient at different gamma-ray doses. In contrast, the tellurite glass showed a high attenuation parameter reduction after exposure to different gamma-ray doses. It is concluded that the borate glass offered the most increased stability against gamma-ray doses, which nominates this glass for use in various nuclear applications.