Evaluation of the effect of low additive V2O5/ZnO on the structural, physical, and radiation attenuation performance of borate glasses

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics 2024-08, Vol.35 (22), p.1532, Article 1532
• Main Authors: Nabil, Islam M., Mosleh, Ahmed T., Alqahtani, Fawaz F., Alzoubi, Ahmad S., Alqahtani, Mohammed S., Zahran, H. Y., Yahia, I. S., Yousef, El Sayed, El-Sharkawy, Rehab M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atomic properties; Attenuation coefficients; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Fast neutrons; Gamma rays; Glass; Materials Science; Melt temperature; Molar volume; Neutrons; Nuclear radiation; Optical and Electronic Materials; Photons; Radiation; Radiation protection; Radiation shielding; Vanadium pentoxide; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-024-13244-6

In this work, new glass systems with composition x V 2 O 5 –20CuO–60B 2 O 3 –15CaO–(5− x )ZnO which is coded as BCuCa–(5− x )Zn:xV where (0, 1, 2.5 mol.%) were fabricated using the melt-quenching technique with melting temperature 1200 °C to serve as competitive candidates for γ-ray and neutron shielding. XRD and FT-IR were used to characterize the assembled glass samples. The density values of synthesized glasses were increased almost linearly from 2.807 to 2.834 g cm −3 , whereas molar volume decreased from 54.894 to 54.174 cm 3 mol −1 , depending on the addition of V 2 O 5 . The γ-ray shielding properties of the prepared glass samples were tested experimentally using P-type HPGe detector in the photon energy range of 0.356–1.332 MeV and theoretically with the help of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and Phy-X/PSD software in the photon energy range of 0.015–15 MeV. Various nuclear radiation shielding parameters such as linear attenuation coefficient ( µ ), half value layer (HVL), tenth value layer (TVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z eff ), radiation protection efficiency (RPE), and fast neutron removal cross-section (FNRCS) for the prepared glasses have been evaluated at the selected range of photon energies. The experimental data of μ for all the tested glass systems is comparable to that obtained from a theoretical calculation. Also, Monte Carlo calculations were in a fairly good agreement with the Phy-X/PSD data, so that the maximum difference between them was about 2.716%. The outlined results indicated that the glass sample with 2.5-mol % V 2 O 5 (BCuCa–2.5Zn:2.5V) exhibits optimal µ , Z eff , HVL, TVL, and MFP values. BCuCa–2.5Zn:2.5V was also found to have the best value of the FNRCS (about 0.1 cm −1 ).