Preparation of lead borate-titanate-barium glasses: experimental investigation of their optical and radiation shielding properties

Novel glasses with the xPbO-5TiO₂-10BaO-10ZnO-(75-x)B₂O₃ (where x = 30 to 45 mol% in 5 mol% increments) molar compositions were prepared. We experimentally investigated the prepared glasses’ structural, optical and radiation shielding characteristics. All the glass samples, based on x-ray diffraction, were noted to be amorphous. Four vibrational bands related to PbO and B₂O₃ were revealed by Fourier transform infrared. The optical band gap significantly increased with adding PbO instead of B₂O₃, ranging from 2.905 to 3.601 eV for Pb30B45 and Pb45B30. The optical electronegativity showed enhancement, indicating a rise in the glass structure’s bond power. The reduction in optical basicity supported this conclusion, which refers to forming a covalent bond in the glass structure instead of an ionic bond. To examine the prepared glasses’ radiation shielding characteristics, we measured the mass attenuation coefficients (MAC) at five energies in the 0.184-0.81 MeV range. The results demonstrated that the experimental and XCOM MAC values are closely aligned, thus supporting the experimental setup’s reliability. At 0.184 MeV, the rate of increase in the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) with adding PbO is significant, with LAC increasing from 3.22 to 4.51 cm⁻¹. While, at 0.71 MeV, the rate of increase in LAC is small, with LAC increasing from 0.39 to 0.48 cm⁻¹. The results of half value layer indicated that to get more protection from the harmful radiation, the shielding material thickness should be increased to get a greater attenuation.