Structural, optical and radiation shielding properties of Zirconium–Titanium–Thallium Ternary Oxide (0.5ZrO₂-(0.5-x)TiO₂-xTl₂O₃)

Zirconium–Titanium–Thallium Ternary Oxide Ceramic (0.5ZrO₂-(0.5-x)TiO₂-xTl₂O₃ (x = 0, 0.05, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.25 mol %) was synthesized via solid-state reaction. Advanced analytical technique like Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) were used to study the microstructure and the solubility of thallium oxide in the ZrO₂/TiO₂ mixture. The diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence techniques were employed to investigate the optical properties of the prepared alloys for various Tl₂O₃ mol% concentrations. In addition, the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) for the synthesized ceramic samples was measured experimentally and compared with XCOM data. Our experimental values were in good agreement with XCOM data. Various shielding parameters for gamma-rays, neutron, proton, and alpha particles were evaluated using XCOM, Phy-X, and SRIM programs. The Tl₂O₃ content linearly affects the gamma-rays shielding parameters, while the Tl₂O₃ content has an inverse relationship with neutron and charged particle shielding parameters. This study proved that our Zirconium–Titanium–Thallium Ternary Oxide Ceramic samples can be applied as ionizing radiation shielding material very well.