The impact of electron beam irradiation on some novel borate glasses doped V2O5; Optical, physical and spectral investigation

Abstract

New borate glass systems with composition of 56B2O3 + 25Li2O + 10Na2O + 5CaO + 2SrO + 2Al2O3 + 0.5 TeO2 + x V2O5, where × = 0.2 or 0.3 (wt. %), were fabricated via the traditional melting-annealing method at low temperature (650–750 °C). Some of the glasses optical, physical, chemical and spectral measurements were investigated within the impact of electron beam (EB) irradiation up to 8 kGy. UV–visible spectra revealed peaks at ∼ 290 and ∼ 300 nm for 0.2 and 0.3 V2O5 glasses, respectively. In addition to broad visible band at ∼ 580 nm owing to the participation of vanadium ions as V5+ with possible conversion to V3+/V4+ under the effect of EB irradiation. FTIR spectra revealed the main trigonal BO3 and tetrahedral BO4 units with an increase in N4 values by the progressive EB irradiation. ESR spectra revealed a gradual increase in intensity with irradiation doses. While, testing chemical durability in distilled H2O at 100 °C reveals a good manner before and after irradiation process. Some physical parameters e.g. optical energy gap (Eoptdirect and Eoptindirect), Urbach energy (EUrbach), refractive index (n) and spectral distribution (k) showed also a gradual decrease with continual irradiation owing to the gradual generating of non-bridging oxygens NBOs and progressive transformation of BO3 to BO4 units. The overall data displayed some dosimetric properties of the two studied glasses with a useful dose range 3–8 kGy of EB radiation. The study recommends usage of glasses as glass dosimeters in medical sterilization, industry and food irradiation processing.