Structural, thermal and thermoluminescence response of transition and alkaline earth metals activated on aluminium borate [Al2(B4O7)3:Mn, Mg

Abstract

Aluminium borate doped with manganese (Mn) and magnesium (Mg) at different concentrations are studied. The samples were synthesized by solid state sintering. The structure, morphology and crystallite size of the aluminium borate are affected by the dopants used. The crystallite size values calculated for different concentrations of manganese and magnesium used in doping of aluminium borate are within a range of 32.5–35.1 nm and 21.3–28.7 nm respectively. The particle size obtained using a scanning electron spectroscopy for Mn and Mg-doped aluminium borate are in the range of 30–40 nm and 20–30 nm respectively. A loss in weight from the thermal analysis performed for Mn and Mg-doped aluminium borate are observed to be 10.43% and 20.06%. The thermoluminescence glow peaks from all the samples measured at 1 °C.s−1 following irradiation to 50 Gy showed a prominent glow peak at 96 °C with minor peak observed at higher temperature (178 °C) region of the glow curve. The activation energy for Mn and Mg-doped aluminium borate were determined to be approximately 0.78 ± 0.30 eV and 0.76 ± 0.25 eV by using the initial rise, glow curve deconvolution and variable heating rate method. The dose responses were considered from 1 to 300 Gy for Mn (0.4%) and Mg (0.3%) doped aluminium borate and were further studied by using the g(D) and f(D) functions.