Determining the physical and structural properties of zinc-borate glasses via experimental and theoretical evaluation of their gamma radiation-shielding characteristics

In this research work, a new series of zinc-borate glasses with the formula (50−x)B 2 O 3 –20TeO 2 –5Bi 2 O 3 –(25 + x )ZnO (where x = 0–25 mol%) was fabricated using conventional melt–quenching method, labeled as BTBZ1 to BTBZ6. By analyzing the data of density and the molar volume, it was found that as the amount of ZnO increased from 25 % to 50 % in the BTBZ glasses, the density also increased from 4.02 to 4.87 g cm −3 because the heavier Zn ions contributed to the glass network to form a more compact and densely packed structure . The FTIR spectroscopy results indicated that BO 3 , BO 4 , TeO 3 , TeO 4 , ZnO 4 , and Bi–O groups are part of the glass structure, confirming that the bonds are mixed and that the network of glass is highly connected. In addition, the radiation-shielding behavior was tested not only via Phy-X/PSD software, but also using actual gamma-ray sources: Co-60, Cs-137, and Ba-133. For shielding of γ-radiations, following parameters were determined: mass attenuation coefficient, linear attenuation coefficient, half-value layer, tenth-value layer, and mean free path. The research showed that raising the amount of ZnO enhanced the glasses’ gamma-ray attenuation, suggesting that these glasses can be the suitable candidates as transparent shields in medicine, nuclear, and aerospace applications.