An Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Sro on the Mechanical, Structural, Optical, and Nuclear Radiation Shielding Properties of Barium Borate Glasses

Abstract

The objective of this work is to offer a better understanding of the unique structural, mechanical, optical and nuclear radiation attenuation properties exhibited by newly produced (B2O3)(70-x)(SrO)x(Na2O)10)(BaO)10(- CaO)10 glasses, where x = 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 %. For this purpose, after The XRD measurements confirmed the noncrystalline nature of the glass structures, it was noted that the substitution of B2O3 with SrO increased the density of SrO glasses in the range of 2.915 g/cm3- 3.304 g/cm3. It was also found that the addition of SrO to barium borate glasses improved their mechanical properties such as Vickers microhardness and yield stress, and the elastic modulus of the glasses decreased. The DSC curves obtained showed that the glass transition temperature increased with the addition of SrO. The direct and indirect band energies of SrO glasses, whose bond structures were evaluated by FTIR and optical properties by UV measurements, were found to decrease in the range of 3.42 eV-3.02 eV and 3.32eV-2.62eV. The nuclear radiation shielding capacities of Sr glasses were then investigated by gamma ray and fast neutron transmission experiments. For gamma-ray transmission experiments, a 133Ba radioisotope was used in combination with an HPGe detector, while a 241Am/Be source and a gas proportional detector were used for neutron absorption experiments. With the addition of SrO, the MAC values of Sr0-Sr4 glasses have shown an increase in the range 0.5116-0.0999 cm2/g and 0.7386-0.1008 cm2/g. Sr glasses has been found to be effective in the attenuation of fast neutrons, and it is even superior to conventional neutron absorbers.