Investigations on physical, structural, elastic, optical and radiation shielding properties of calcium phospho-silicate glasses

Abstract

Exploration of reinforcing alkaline oxide modifiers into the nominal composition of 40P2O5+(30‒X)CaO+XMgO+9SiO2+6Sr2F+6LiF+6BaF+2.5Ce2O3+0.5Sm2O3 (where X= 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 in wt%) has been performed. Oxides from the same alkaline group (CaO and MgO) have been chosen as a modifier. Glasses were made through the customary melt-quench technique. Successful glass formation was confirmed by XRD and functional group and compositional analysis via FTIR. Electronic structures of the proposed poly-component glasses are visualized by absorption spectra in the three prominent regions of the (electromagnetic) EM spectrum. Auxiliary physical, structural, and elastic properties were scrutinized for the approval of glasses as an obedient shielding material and evaluation of some other attenuating factors of EM wave by poly-component glasses in the gamma-ray region. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) was reported in the energy range of 0.284–1.333 MeV. The LAC results demonstrated that the interaction of the photons with the prepared specimens is high at lower photon energies and the shielding provided by the samples is relatively high when the energy level is low. The addition of MgO results in an improvement in the LAC values, and as a consequence, PS0Mg and PS25Mg had the lowest and highest LAC, respectively. The highest transmission factor values were reported for a thickness of 0.3 cm and equal to 0.87 at 0.284 MeV, 0.91 at 0.551 MeV, and 0.93 at 0.826 MeV (this is for PS0Mg sample).