Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2021) 136: 224
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-01064-6

Regular Article

Structural, optical, and gamma-ray shielding properties of a newly fabricated P₂O₅–B₂O₃–Bi₂O₃–Li₂O–ZrO₂ glass system

¹ Physics Department, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P. O. Box. 84428, 11671, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
² Ural Federal University, Mira St., 19, 62002, Yekaterinburg, Russia
³ Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, 32511, Shebin El-Koom, Menoufia, Egypt
⁴ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Isra University, Amman, Jordan
⁵ Department of Nuclear Medicine Research, Institute for Research and Medical Consultations (IRMC), Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU), P.O. Box 1982, 31441, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
⁶ Nuclear Materials Authority, El Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
⁷ Department of Science and Technology, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (DOST-PNRI), Commonwealth Avenue, 1101, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
⁸ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, 21589, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

^c mabualssayed@ut.edu.sa
^e umassem@post.com

Received: 16 October 2020
Accepted: 31 December 2020
Published online: 17 February 2021

Abstract

A new glass network consists of (40–x)P₂O₅ + 30B₂O₃ + 20Bi₂O₃ + 10Li₂O + xZrO₂ where x is ranged between 0 and 5 mol% and was fabricated using a quenching method at temperature ranged between 1050° and 1380 °C. It has been observed that there is an increase in the ZrO₂ substitution ratio with the glass melting temperature increased gradually. Moreover, by using the XRD spectrometer, it was verified the amorphous state of the glass samples. The absorbance and refractive index were measured experimentally using the UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer. Other essential optical parameters such as energy gap, Urbach energy, extinction coefficient, electrical polarizability, molar fraction, and dielectric constants were calculated based on the refractive index's experimental results. Moreover, the fabricated glass samples' ability to stand against the gamma energy and fast neutron were examined using simulation code MCNP-5 and the theoretical calculation by the latest Electron Photon Interaction Cross Section 2017 photoatomic library. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) exhibits a good performance when replacing the P₂O₅ by ZrO₂ contents. The LAC at gamma-ray energy (0.015 MeV) was enhanced from 207.112 to 274.831 cm⁻¹, increasing the ZrO₂ replacing ratio between 0 and 5 mol %, respectively. The mass attenuation coefficients (µ_m) were found to have higher values for the library interpolation as compared to MCNP-5 simulations. The prepared glasses' ability to absorb the incoming fast neutron was diminished from 0.0251 to 0.0245 cm² g⁻¹, increasing the ZrO₂ substitution ratio between 0 and 5 mol %, respectively.