Experimental investigation of structural and radiation shielding features of Li₂O-BaO-ZnO-B₂O₃-Bi₂O₃ glass systems

To investigate the effects of increasing the amount of Bi₂O₃ in the glass composition, a novel glass system was created with the following chemical composition: 5Li₂O-5BaO-10ZnO-(30-x) B₂O₃-(50+x) Bi₂O₃. x = 10, 15, 20 mol%. A micro-Raman spectrometer (WITec alpha300 R) was utilized to demonstrate the change in chemical bonds brought on by the addition of Bi₂O₃. Additionally, the Makishema-Makinze theory was employed to calculate the manufactured glasses' mechanical properties. According to the theoretical analysis of mechanical properties, switching from B₂O₃ to the compound Bi₂O₃ results in a decrease in elastic moduli, packing density, and hardness. Additionally, the gamma-ray shielding properties were evaluated experimentally using a high purity germanium detector and affirmed using the Monte Carlo simulation. The analysis showed that raising the Bi₂O₃ content from 60 to 70 mol% resulted in a linear attenuation coefficient enhancment by 12.4% (at 0.059 MeV), 12% (at 0.662 MeV), and 10% (at 2.506 MeV).