Structural, UV and shielding properties of ZBPC glasses

In the present research work, six glasses with chemical mode (10ZnO-40 B2O3-(50-x) Pb3O4-xCuO), where 0 <= x <= 7.5 wt% have been synthesized by solid state reaction method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements have been achieved to check the amorphous nature of these glasses. UV-visible measurements were performed, the optical energy band gap (E-gap(ASF)) and refractive index (n) were determined using the absorption spectrum fitting method (ASF). E-gap(ASF) values were in the range of 2.54-1.24 eV, while (n) in the range of 2.53 to 1.17. Densities (rho) of the synthesized glasses were measured, and molar volume (M-v) were evaluated. The radiation shielding features like; mass attenuation coefficients (mu/rho), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), half value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP) for the glasses were evaluated using XCOM and MCNPX general purpose Monte Carlo code in the energy range 0.015-10 MeV and compared with some different types of glasses. Results reflected that the (mu/rho) of the studied glasses decreased with the ratio of CuO increased. ZBPC0 glass has the highest Z(eff) whereas ZBPC7.5 glass has the lowest. The glass ZBPC7.5 has the highest HVL and MFP values while ZBPC0 glass has the lowest. One can conclude that ZBPC0 has superior gamma radiation shielding effectiveness among the synthesized glasses.