Effect of CeO2 addition on structural, optical, and radiation shielding properties of B2O3-Na2O-SrO glass system

This work aims to investigate the effect of CeO2 addition on structural, optical, and radiation shielding properties of B2O3-Na2O-SrO glass system. The XRD patterns of the glasses showed the amorphous nature of the glass. The FTIR spectra revealed that the CeO2 addition promotes the transformation of the trigonal BO3 to tetrahedral BO4 units. Further, the energy gap decreased from 3.29 to 2.68 eV with the Ce content increasing. It is noticed that the dispersion parameters decreased by increasing the content of CeO2 in BNSC glass. Also, the mass attenuation coefficient displayed a gradual decrease with the increment in energy. Further, the mean free path and half-value layer values decreased with the increasing amount of the CeO2. Furthermore, a good agreement between experimental and theoretical interpretations via Phy-X/PSD software was observed. Overall, the results revealed that the CeO2 addition in glass samples makes them suitable for radiation protection utilizations.

Automated summary

The addition of CeO2 has effects on the structural, optical, and radiation shielding properties of the B2O3-Na2O-SrO glass system, leading to a decrease in energy gap and dispersion parameters with increasing Ce content. Mass attenuation coefficient, mean free path, and half-value layer values also decrease with higher CeO2 content, indicating that CeO2 addition makes the glass suitable for radiation protection applications.