Impact of doping Te²⁺ in B₂ O_3 $-ZnO-CaO glasses for radiation shielding enhancement experimental evaluation

In this investigation, a novel glass system was fabricated via melt quenching. Effect of adding TeO_2 on the composition (40-x) B_2 $ O_3 + (15 + x + y) TeO_2 + 25ZnO + (20-y)CaO was studied, where x = 0, 2, 4, 6 mol % and y = 0, 3, 6, and 9 mol % in order to give four fabricated glasses coded by BTZC-1, BTZC-2, BTZC-3, and BTZC-4, respectively. The densities were measured by Archimedes' principle and were 3700, 3860, 4015, and 4166 gcm⁻³ , respectively, due to the increasing additives of TeO_2 . The attenuation properties of the synthesized glass were determined experimentally and theoretically at four energies 0.060, 0.662, 1.173, and 1.333 MeV. A germanium detector was used as a spectrometer, and theoretically the Phy-X software was used, with the findings in agreement between the two techniques. For the BTZC-1 glass at 0.059 MeV, the linear attenuation coefficient was 7.512 cm⁻¹ using the experimental approach and 7.975 cm⁻¹ via Phy-X. The maximum linear attenuation coefficient values were 7.975, 9.826, 11.622, and 13.368 cm⁻¹ , respectively for BTZC-1, BTZC-2, BTZC-3 and BTZC-4 at 0.060 MeV, with minimum values of 0.194, 0.201, 0.207, and 0.214 cm⁻¹ $at 1.333 MeV.