Characterization of glasses composed of PbO, ZnO, MgO, and B2O3 in terms of their structural, optical, and gamma ray shielding properties

Abstract

The amorphous glasses containing PbO, ZnO, MgO, and B2O3 have been fabricated using the melt quenching technique. The structural properties have been analysed using the Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. Derivative of Absorption Spectra Fitting (DASF) method have been used to estimate the band gap energy from the UV–Vis absorption data which decreases from 3.02 eV to 2.66 eV with increasing the concentration of the PbO.The four glass samples 0.284 and 0.826 MeV showed unique variations in terms of gamma attenuation ability. LZMB4 glass sample proved to be the mist effective in terms of shielding of gamma radiation as it requires little distance compared to LZMB3, LZMB2 and LZMB1 to attenuate. RPE revealed a raise with increase in the thickness of the material and reduces as the energy raises. TF is superior in LZMB1 compared to LZMB2, LZMB3 and LZMB4, confirming that, LZMB4 will attenuate better. The ZEff of the materials was seen falling as the energy increases, confirming that the linear attenuation coefficient of the glass materials decreases when the energy is increased. The results confirmed that, glass material LZMB4 is the best option especially for gamma radiation shielding applications compared to LZMB3, followed by LZMB2, then LZMB1.

Keywords

• Radiation shielding
• Band gap energy
• Melt quenching technique
• DASF
• FTIR