Structural, physical and radiation attenuation properties of tungsten doped zinc borate glasses

Abstract

For the x WO3 (40 – x) ZnO 50B2O3 10K2O, (0 ≤ x ≤ 20 wt%) glass system. optical, structure, gamma and neutron radiation shielding aspects were examined comprehensively. The mass attenuation coefficients of gamma-rays, the mean free photon path (MFP), and the effective atomic number (Zeff) have been determined experimentally at photon energies 238, 662,911, 1173, 1332 and 2614 keV. The results obtained were compared with the corresponding theoretical data, which were found to be dependent on glass components and energy. Moreover, the calculated ƩR shows that increasing the removal cross section increases with increasing the WO3 concentration. The molar volume of the glasses has been derived from density measurements and studied as a function of composition. FTIR spectral results revealed that the glass network matrix is sequentially formed by BO3, BO4, ZnO4, WO4 and WO6 structural groups. The optical transmission was done on these glasses and the absorbance was increased as WO3 increased. Moreover, the peak shifted to a longer wavelength as WO3 increased and a decreasing behavior of the bandgap. The obtained results have been analyzed in the light of various oxidation states of tungsten ions in the glass matrix. All results pointed out that these glasses have potential applications in radiation shielding.