SrO–ZnO–PbO–B2O3 glassy insights: Unveiling the structural and optical features for gamma ray shielding efficacy

Abstract

The melt-quenching approach was utilised to synthesize amorphous SrO–ZnO–PbO–B2O3 glasses, with FTIR spectroscopy applied to the samples to reveal the various bonds' stretching and bending vibrations. With PbO introduced to the network, the UV–Vis absorption spectrum's absorption peak shifts towards the higher wavelength values, while Tauc plot analysis of the UV–Vis spectra reveals a 2.957–2.569 eV decrease in the band gap energy. The radiation shielding properties are examined via Phy-X program. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) has an inverse relation with the energy, which demonstrated the greater penetration ability of radiation that contains higher energy. In terms of the MAC values at low energies the results revealed a greater difference, while they are almost identical at higher energies. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) was evaluated and the chemical composition's influence discussed, with the LAC values in the order of SZPB1 <SZPB2 <SZPB3 <SZPB4. This confirms that the PbO addition leads to increased LAC values. The half value layer (HVL) decreases with increased concentration of PbO. This suggests that the higher the glass system's PbO content, the thinner the glass system needs to be to attenuate half of the incoming photons.