A transparent bismo-borosilicate glass against ionizing photons: synthesis and physical, structural, optical, and radiation shielding properties

The current paper includes a boro-silicate-based glass system (BS) with a composition of 14.23Na2O + 0.97MgO + 0.28Al2O3 + 62.27SiO2 + 12.95B2O3 + 8.75CaO0.49SrO + 0.06Fe2O3. The dopant-Bi2O3 was inserted from 0 to 10 wt% with a step of 2.5 in place of the BS glass system with a rBi2O3 + (100-r)BS formulation. The glass samples coded as BBS0 to BBS4 were successfully synthesized using a conventional glass melting technique. The changes in physical, structural, and optical properties were widely surveyed for the synthesized glass samples, while theoretical and simulation radiation shielding features were studied via XCOM and FLUKA, respectively. According to the physical property findings, the glass density increased from 2.6439 to 2.7312 g/cm3 in subjection to the inserting of Bi2O3 from 0 to 10 wt%. Further, XRD patterns demonstrated an amorphous structure for all fabricated glass specimens. On the other hand, FT-IR spectra indicated O–H, Si–O-Si, O-Si–O, and B-O-B bonds for the BBS glass series, irrespective of varying Bi2O3 content. In the respective order, the direct energy bandgap values were found to be 2.94, 2.84, 2.45, 2.41, and 2.05 eV for BBS0 to BBS4 after performing the UV–Vis method. Within the context of radiation shielding characteristics, one observed an overall rise in the linear and mass attenuation coefficients with the glasses' Bi2O3 concentration. The greatest HVL at 5 MeV for BBS0, whereas the maximum values were 4.34, 4.19, 3.86, and 3.70 cm for BBS1 through BBS4. What's more, FLUKA simulated, and XCOM computed values were in excellent agreement; the deviation was 0.04 and 2.75%. In summary, the BBS4 glass system (with highest Bi2O3 content) possesses great potential for radiation protection purposes.