Modulation of optical, mechanical and radiation shielding characteristics in TeO₂-B2O3–BaO–CeO₂ glasses with varying CeO₂ level

Abstract

The TeO₂-BaO-CeO₂-B₂O₃ glass samples are synthesized using the melt quenching technique in order to examine the impact of varying concentrations of CeO₂ on their physical, mechanical, optical, and gamma ray shielding capabilities. With an increase in the CeO₂ concentration, the density (ρ) of the glasses increased, so the glass structure became more compact, as shown by the drop in molar volume (V_m) from 27.895 to 27.554 cm³/mol and the reduction in the average distance between boron atoms (<d_B-B>) from 4.045 × 10⁻⁸ to 3.919 × 10⁻⁸ cm. The Young's modulus (E) increases from 93.209 to 93.527 GPa, the bulk modulus (B) increased from 73.763 to 74.236 GPa, the shear modulus (G) increased from 38.497 to 38.609 GPa, and the longitudinal modulus (L) increased from 125.093 to 125.714 GPa. The absorption edge shifts towards the longer wavelength side as the amount of CeO₂ increased, changing from 336 nm to 527 nm. This shift was followed by a drop in the energy difference between the valence band and the conduction band, known as the band gap energy (E_g), which decreased from 3.082 to 1.574 eV.The radiation shielding properties for the prepared glasses were investigated using Phy-X software in the energy range of 0.015–15 MeV. The increase of CeO₂ content showed a direct relationship with the radiation shielding characteristics.