Study of the influence of MoO3 concentration on the chemical structure, physical properties, and radiation absorption prowess of alumino lead borate glasses

Abstract

The present study presents the preparation of a glass system with composition of 55B2O3 - 30Pb3O4- Al2O3- MoO3, where by melt quenching conventional method. The structure of the synthesized samples was examined by XRD and FT-IR techniques. It was found that the molybdenum acts as a modifier and enhances the change between BO3 and BO4 structural units. Increasing MoO3 in the sample improved the glass network compactness. The influence of MoO3 content was studied on several physical parameters such as inter-ionic distance (Ri), the polaron radius (rp) and internuclear distance (ri), B—B separation (dB-B) average coordination number, number of bonds, field strength of (Mo+3), and the floppy modes. Increasing MoO3 doping concentration from 0–5 mol % produced corresponding increase in fast neutron effective removal cross section from 0.07127–0.10825 cm−1, total cross section for thermal neutrons from 68.35875–105.7526 cm−1, and an increment in the cold neutron scattering cross section. Furthermore, the influence of MoO3 doping in the glasses was such that the stopping powers and ranges RCSDA /Rp of electrons, proton, alpha particles, and carbon ion follows the trend: BPAM-G1 > BPAM-G2 > BPAM-G3 > BPAM-G4 > BPAM-G5, and (RCSDA /Rp)BPAM-G1 > (RCSDA /Rp)BPAM-G2 > (RCSDA /Rp)BPAM-G3 > (RCSDA /Rp)BPAM-G4 > ((RCSDA /Rp)BPAM-G5 respectively. On the other hand, the doping produced no noticeable differences in the equivalent atomic number and the exposure buildup factor of the glasses.