Influence of Bi2O3 on Physical, Optical and gamma radiation Properties of BaO-Bi2O3-B2O3-CuO and BaO-Bi2O3-B2O3-Fe2O3 glasses

Abstract

In this present work glasses with chemical composition 30BaO-XBi₂O₃-(69-X)B₂O₃-1CuO and 30BaO-XBi₂O₃-(69-X)B₂O₃-1Fe₂O₃ (X = 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mole%) have been prepared and labeled as BBBC and BBBF series, respectively. Traditional quenching method was employed for making these samples. XRD diffractograms confirmed that the materials were amorphous. Physical, optical and structural properties were studied with the influence of Bi₂O₃ concentration. The density of both BBBC and BBBF series glasses increased with the increase in Bi₂O₃ concentration. With increasing Bi₂O₃ content, OPD falls but molar volume increases, implying that non-bridging oxygen’s develop and the glass expands. Tauc graphs were used to derive the indirect optical band gap energy as well as the Urbach energy. The indirect optical band gap (E_opt) in the current glass system reduced as the concentration of Bi₂O₃ increased. The XCOM software was used to examine experimentally established radiation shielding features including mass attenuation coefficients (MAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), and effective atomic number (Z_eff). It is concluded that the gamma ray shielding properties of the glasses are increasing with the increase of Bi₂O₃ content in the glasses. The glass sample A6 with 0.627 cm thickness reduces the intensity of the incident gamma ray to 50% of its initial intensity, whereas A1 required 1.801 cm thickness. Hence the glass sample A6 has highest radiation shielding capacity than other samples.