Structural, optical and nuclear radiation shielding properties of strontium barium borate glasses doped with dysprosium and niobium

Abstract

Five new strontium barium borate (BNBD) glasses doped with dysprosium ion and different concentrations of niobium pentoxide were synthesized using the standard melt-quenching method. The physical, structural, optical and gamma radiation shielding properties of these glasses were investigated. Density, average molecular weight, refractive index, molar volume, optical dielectric constant, boron-boron separation, metallization criterion, oxygen packing density, Poisson ratio, optical basicity, optical electronegativity, and two-photon absorption coefficients of the synthesized glasses were determined. By the addition of Nb2O5 content, boron-boron distance and oxygen packing density values increased, while molar volume of oxygen decreased due to the formation of bridging oxygen. The two-photon absorption could be constrained by replacing BaCO3 by niobium pentoxide content which further influences the bandgap. The ionic nature of the titled glasses is discussed using the bonding parameter, optical basicity, ionic and covalent characteristic parameter values. Moreover, the shielding ability of dysprosium ions doped niobium borate glasses against photons, fast neutrons and electrons has been extensively evaluated. For this purpose, the mass attenuation coefficient (µ/ρ, cm2/g) of the glasses and several photon protection parameters, derived from µ/ρ were obtained for 0.015–15 meV. The maximum µ/ρ values were achieved for BNBD0 glass, varying between 0.033 and 35.430 cm2/g. The lowest buildup factor values were found for BNBD0 glass. Furthermore, effective removal cross section values for fast neutrons increased steadily between 0.125 and 0.130 cm−1 due to the increase in the density of the glasses with the enhancing of Nb2O5 concentration. It was noticed that the range of high energy electrons was shorter on the BNBD0 glass. It was concluded that BNBD0 glass with high BaCO3 concentration can be considered as an alternative material in nuclear radiation shielding applications.