Influence of Co-formers on the radiation shielding properties of zinc incorporated barium borate glasses for radioactive waste storage applications

The primary objective of the current investigation is to explore a novel series of Dy3+ions doped Zinc incorporated barium borate glasses synthesized through the classic melt quenching approach for the application of radiation defending. In this examination, the co-formers TeO2, Bi2O3, V2O5 and one of the glass formers P2O5comprised individually with the glass network. The non-crystalline phase of fabricated glasses symbolized by the empirical formula (64-x) B2O3+xA+15BaO+20ZnF2+1Dy2O3 (where x = 0, 20; A = P2O5, TeO2, Bi2O3, V2O5) and these pristine glasses were characterized by various techniques. Structural investigations were done by XRD, FTIR approach. FTIR analysis reveals the existence of functional group and their corresponding band assignments in the glass samples were recognized. The UV-Visible-NIR absorption spectra elucidates the optical properties including the energy transitions concerned with the trivalent Dysprosium ion, Urbach energy, direct and indirect bandgap energy using Tauc's plot method. The vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) co-former comprised glass network exhibits highly contrary behavior in optical scrutiny compared to other glasses. The Physical, structural attributes along with elastic properties are deliberated for the prepared glasses. The ionicity and covalency estimation validates the fact that the present glass samples exhibit maximum ionic nature. Radiation shielding parameters such as mass attenuation coefficients (MAC), half value layer (HVL) and effective atomic number (Zeff) for the titled glasses have been enumerated, discussed and reported. Among the prepared glasses, Bi2O3 co-former comprised glass exhibit better efficiency than the available concrete shielding materials.