Physical, optical, thermal, mechanical, and photon shielding properties of Rb2O-reinforced SiO2–Na2O–CaO–MgO–Al2O3 glass system

Abstract

The current work explored the first Rb2O-reinforced silicate glass (SG) system for determining potential use in radiation shielding applications. The glass system of (72 − x)SiO2–14.5Na2O–7.8CaO–4.2MgO–1.5Al2O3 − xRb2O where x: 0, 9, 18, 27, and 36 wt% has been investigated for photon shielding competencies with the use of newly developed Phy-X/PSD software. This computational software has enabled us to figure out a number of significant parameters involving linear attenuation coefficient (LAC), mean free path (mfp), radiation protection factor (RPE), and half-value layer (HVL) in the photon energy from 0.015 to 15 meV for R0 to R36 glass series. User-friendly BatchMaker software paved the way for predicting glass formation abilities via viscosity versus temperature drawings. Some physical, optical, and mechanical property calculations have been performed to demonstrate the effect of Rb2O in substitution for SiO2. The photon shielding computations revealed that LAC and RPE increased while mfp and HVL decreased by inserting Rb2O from 0 to 36 wt%. Further, the BatchMaker estimated calculations reported that the melting point can be decreased from 1453 to 1312 °C owing to the contribution of 36 wt% Rb2O. On the other hand, glass density yielded an ascending behavior from 2.5481 to 2.9244 g.cm−3 for R0 to R36 series. Other optical parameters such as refractive index were enhanced with the use of higher Rb2O amounts. In mechanical property calculations, we determined that increasing Rb2O caused to diminish Young’s, bulk, shear, and longitudinal moduli. Based on the findings, this study exhibited that the R36 sample can serve as an alternative radiation shielding glass compared to currently preferred ones.