The impact of SrO on borophosphate glasses: synthesis, structure, optical properties as well as gamma-ray shielding performance

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 34; no. 6; p. 478
• Main Authors: Abouhaswa, A. S., Alsaif, Norah A. M., Al-Ghamdi, Hanan, El-Hamalawy, A. A., Rammah, Y. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Attenuation coefficients; Barium oxides; Boron; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Energy bands; Energy gap; Gamma rays; Glass; Materials Science; Molar volume; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optical properties; Photons; Radiation; Radiation shielding; Refractivity; Strontium oxides
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-023-09922-6

In this work, glass samples with nominal compositions of 55B 2 O 3  + 25P 2 O 5  + (20-x)BaO + xSrO: x = 0 (BPBSr0), 5 (BPBSr5), 10 (BPBSr10), 15 (BPBSr15), and 20 (BPBSr20) mol% were manufactured using the well-known melt quenching process. The physical, structural, and radiation shielding properties of these glasses within 0.015–15 MeV photon energy have been investigated. The amorphous nature of BPBSr-glasses confirmed by XRD measurements. Both density (ρ glass ) and molar volume (V M ) of the BPBSr-glasses were gradually reduced as SrO concentration increased in the glassy network. The direct and indirect optical energy band gaps ( E g ) of BPBSr-glasses were reduced, while Urbach's energy (E U ) was increased as a function of SrO concentration. The refractive index (n o ) was changed from 1.888 to 2.624. The highest mass (µ m ) and linear (µ) attenuation coefficients values were performed achieved for BPBSr0 glass sample, while the lowest values were performed for BPBSr20 glass sample for all photon energy. Generally, the µ m and µ behavior obeys the order: (BPbSr0)µ m, µ > (BPbSr5)µ m, µ > (BPbSr10)µ m, µ > (BPbSr15)µ m, µ > (BPbSr20)µ m, µ. In terms of half-value (T 1/2 ) parameter, BPBSr0 glass performed the lowest values of T 1/2 , while BPBSr20 glass performed the highest values. The obtained results confirm that the suggested BPBSr-glasses can be applied in optical devices and which with free or less with SrO can be applied as gamma-ray shielding materials.