Influence of Fe2O3 on synthesis, physical, optical, and radiation shielding properties of Na2B4O7-SiO2-CaO-Fe2O3 glasses for radiation applications

This work explored the optical properties and radiation resistance of Na2B4O7-SiO2-CaOFe2O3 glasses. As the Fe2O3 increase, the (ρ) increases from 2.37 for BSFe-0 to 3.43 g/cm³ for BSFe-2 while (Vₘ) decline from 69.80 cm³/mol for BSFe-0 to 48.83 cm³/mol for BSFe-2. The 𝐸𝐸𝑜𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑝𝑝values obtained are 2.49, 2.34, 2.32, 2.21, and 2.19 eV for the BSFe-0, BSFe-0.5, BSFe-1, BSFe-1.5, and BSFe-2 glasses. With the addition of Fe2O3 to the base glasses at the expense of CaO, the 𝑍𝑍𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 values increase. The trend in (𝑍𝑍𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒) values for BSFe glasses follows the order: BSFe-2 > BSFe-1.5 > BSFe-1 > BSFe-0.5 > BSFe-0. This indicates that higher 𝑍𝑍𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 values are because of the existence of Fe2O3. Accordingly, BSFe-2 glass samples with the higher content of Fe2O3, exhibits greater photon interaction with 𝛾𝛾 − radiation. As a result, BSFe-2 is more suitable for 𝛾𝛾 and neutron shielding application compared to the other samples.