Influence of SrO on the mechanical, optical, and gamma-ray shielding performance of a boro-tellurite glass series

Abstract

The present work aims to synthesize a boro-tellurite glass series for radiation shielding applications, where the boro-tellurite glass series is composed of 18 TeO₂–(81-y) B₂O₃–y SrO–1 Er₂O₃, y = 13, 16, 19, and 22 mol%. XRD analysis confirmed the amorphous nature of all prepared glasses, with no detectable crystalline phases. FTIR analysis confirmed the coexistence of BO₃/BO₄ and TeO₃/TeO₄ structural units, while deconvolution revealed a non-monotonic variation in the BO₄ fraction with increasing SrO content. The mechanical properties of the fabricated boro-tellurite glasses were calculated utilizing the Makishima-Makinzie theory. The obtained data shows a reduction in the mechanical moduli and hardness of the fabricated glasses with the rise in the insertions of SrO modifiers. The hardness of the fabricated glasses reduced by ≈ 4.5% when the SrO content rose from 13 to 22 mol%. Furthermore, the UV-Vis absorption spectra were measured for the fabricated boro-tellurite glasses to check the influence of SrO modifiers in their optical properties. The insertion of SrO modifiers slightly decreases the refractive index from 2.257 to 2.250 for the direct transition. The evaluation of the shielding properties using the Monte Carlo simulation depicts that the insertion of the SrO modifiers to the fabricated boro-tellurite glasses enhances their linearity by 30.4%, 7.2%, and 11.4% at 0.03 MeV, 0.5 MeV, and 15 MeV, respectively.