Impact of Bi₂O₃ on the optical, structural, thermal, and nuclear radiation shielding properties of lead zinc borate glass

The influence of Bi₂O₃ substitution for B₂O₃ on the structural, optical, thermal, and radiation shielding characteristics of (75-x)B₂O₃-20ZnO-5Pb₃O₄-xBi₂O₃ glass, where x = 5, 10, 15, 20 mol%, was synthesized via melt-quenching. Various material characterization techniques revealed amorphous properties, increased optical density with disordered structure, lowering glass thermal resistance as Bi₂O₃ concentrations increased in the glass structure. The linear and mass attenuation coefficient obtained experimentally, Geant4, and Phy-X/PSD showed a good agreement, increasing from 3.97 to 7.137 cm⁻¹ and from 0.953 to 1.357 cm²/g at 0.15 MeV, when 5 and 20 mol% Bi₂O₃ was added. At glass thickness of 0.5 cm, the Radiation Protection Efficiency (RPE) of the samples containing 5 and 20 mol% Bi₂O₃ was 86.21 % and 97.15 %, at an energy of 0.15 MeV and increased to 99.99 % and 100 % for 2 cm. These results suggest the synthesized glasses are promising candidates for radiation shielding applications.