Influence of modifiers on the physical, structural, elastic and radiation shielding competence of Dy3+ions doped Alkali boro-tellurite glasses

Highly efficient gamma ray shielding glasses with chemical composition 39.5H3BO3-25TeO2- 15MO10Na2CO3-10K2CO3- 0.5Dy2O3 (M = BaO, CaO, SrO, Li2O, ZnO) were synthesized by traditional melt-quenching technique. Physical, structural and elastic features of the glass systems were examined to prove the formation of bridging oxygens. The attributes such as optical basicity and ionic nature (Ic) clarifies that the glasses are inclined in the direction of ionicity rather than covalency. The gamma-ray shielding parameters of the investigated glasses were calculated in an important range in radiation protection (0.015-15 MeV). At 0.02 and 0.03 MeV, the SrO containing glass (BTNKD-Sr) shows the highest mu/rho values which is substituted by the BaO glass (BTNKD-Ba) thereafter. It signifies that BTNKD-Sr is the most effective material in shielding lower energy photons (up to 0.0374 MeV), while BTNKD-Ba indicates better shielding against photons in a wide energy region (0.0374-15 MeV). The half value layer (HVL) values of the prepared glasses range from 0.0163 cm for Li2O glass (BTNKD-Li) to 0.0073 cm for ZnO glass (BTNKD-Zn) at 0.015 MeV, while the corresponding values range from 9.62 cm (BTNKD-Li) to 6.68 cm (BTNKD-Zn) at 15 MeV. The effective atomic numbers (Zeff) of the glasses are rapidly decreased at 0.3 MeV.

Automated summary

Highly efficient gamma ray shielding glasses were synthesized with specific chemical composition, showing better performance in shielding ionic nature rather than covalency. The study found that glasses with higher SrO content exhibit superior shielding against lower energy photons, while BaO glasses perform better in shielding photons over a wide energy range.