Revealing optical, mechanical and radiation shielding behavior of ZnO-PbO2-SiO2 Glasses
M.I. Sayyed, J. S. Ashwajeet, M. Raghavendra, K.A. Mahmoud, Y. Maghrbi
Abstract
A four zinc lead silicate glass series was fabricated for the optical and radiation shielding applications. To measure the prepared glasses' density, the Archimedes method was used, whereby the measurements showed that a 39–45 mol% PbO 2 increase raises the prepared glasses' density from 5.699 to 6.106 g/cm 3 . Furthermore, the prepared glasses' absorption spectra were detected via a UV-visible spectrophotometer (UV-T-7200 model) within the 190–1100 nm spectral range. With increasing PbO₂ concentration, the energy band gap of the prepared glasses decreases, while the refractive index increases. Also, to investigate the prepared glasses' mechanical properties, the Makishima-Makinzie theory was applied. The investigation revealed that all the mechanical properties slightly decreased due to the increased concentration of PbO 2 . Additionally, across the 0.015–15 MeV energy range, Monte Carlo simulation was applied to evaluate the prepared glasses' radiation shielding properties. Due to the increase in PbO 2 concentration, the evaluations depict the radiation shielding properties' enhancement. The 39–45 mol% PbO 2 concentration increase raises the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) through 9.074–10.168 cm –1 (at 0.08 MeV), 0.460–0.498 cm –1 (at 0.8 MeV), and 0.218–0.238 cm –1 (at 8 MeV). The LACs of the currently manufactured PbSi glasses are higher than those of commercial glasses, including RS 253, RS 253 G18, RS 323 G19, RS 360, and RS 520.