Nuclear Protection and Multifunction Characteristics of Nano/Micro Advanced Borate Glass System

For this research, we prepared a glass system composed of 20PbO–15BaO–20ZnO–45B2O3 (mole ratio) via melt quenching to study the effects of ZnO particle size (micro, nano, and a mixture of both) on structural, thermal, optical, and radiation protection properties. Attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra showed the presence of vibrational bands characteristic of glass network structures, confirming that the borate glass matrix had incorporated the oxides, while X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the samples’ amorphous nature with some differences in short-range order when using nano-ZnO. A more homogeneous and denser surface in the nano and hybrid samples was revealed by scanning electron microscope images. Differential scanning calorimetry patterns also revealed a glass transition in the range of 480°C to 520°C with improved thermal stability of the nano-sized samples compared to the micro-sized ones. Through optical measurements, the direct optical band gap was in the 3.1- to 3.5-eV range, gradually increasing upon the introduction of ZnO nanoparticles, reflecting improved transparency. Regarding the radiation properties, the gamma-ray transmission factor (TF) was calculated at an energy of 0.662 MeV. The ZnO (half-micro/half-nano) hybrid sample was found to exhibit lower TF values (≈0.855) compared to the micro (≈0.860) and nano (≈0.859) samples at 0.35-cm thickness, demonstrating a relatively higher radiation-blocking efficiency. Such results suggest that micro- and nano-ZnO particle incorporation improves the optical properties and slightly increases the gamma-ray blocking efficiency, making these glasses suitable for both optical and radiation applications.