Enhancement of electrical and radiation shielding properties of vanadium doped lithium telluro-borate (LTB) glasses

Abstract

Vanadium doped lithium telluro-borate (LTB) glasses of the composition (20-x)Li2O-20TeO2-60B2O3-(x)V2O5 (x = 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 in mol %) were synthesised by melt quenching technique. The structural, optical, physical, electrical and radiation shielding parameters of the prepared glasses were investigated to determine the effect of vanadium in the LTB glass matrix. Density of LTB glasses were found to increases from 2.52 to 2.98 g/cm3 under addition of vanadium oxide and certain density derived structural parameters were studied. XRD pattern confirms the amorphous nature of the pristine and doped LTB glass. FTIR spectra shows the presence of various bonds in the vanadium doped LTB glasses. The direct optical bandgap (Eg) decreases due to the addition of V2O5 and leads to creation of defects in the LTB glasses thereby increasing the Urbach energy (Eu). Physical parameters like refractive index (n), molar refractivity (Rm), reflection loss (Lr), molar electronic polarizability (αm), transmission coefficient (T) and metallization criteria (M) were calculated. The electrical properties including dielectric constant (εʹ), conductivity (σ) and activation energies (Ea) were analysed and observed that Ea decreases under the addition of vanadium to the glass network proving the enhancement in electrical conductivity. Radiation shielding parameters such as MAC, LAC, HVL, TVL, MFP, R, ACS, ECS, Neff, Zeff, and Ceff were calculated using Phy-X/PSD and LTB_2V with the highest V2O5 additive shows enhanced result in gamma radiation shielding.

Keywords

• Lithium telluro-borate glasses
• Tellurite glasses
• Vanadium doped glasses
• Enhanced electrical conductivity
• Radiation shielding glasses