Strontium Oxide-Reinforced Borotellurite Glasses: Synthesis, Structure, and Optical Characteristics and γ-Ray and Neutron Attenuation Capability

This work investigates the significant effects of SrO on the structural, physical, and UV-visible (UV-Vis) characteristics and the gamma-ray and neutron shielding ability of samarium sodium borotellurite glasses with the composition (46.5-X)B2O3 + 0.5Sm(2)O(3) + 15TeO(2) + 18Bi(2)O(3) + 20Na(2)O + XSrO, where X = 0 (SrO0)-12 (SrO12)% with steps of 3 mol.%, designated as SrOX. The glass samples were prepared via the well-known melt quenching technique. The amorphous nature of the fabricated glasses was confirmed by XRD. The density (rho) of the SrOX samples increased gradually from 3.73 +/- 0.01 g/cm(3) to 4.04 +/- 0.01 g/cm(3). The direct optical gap increased from 2.94 +/- 0.01 eV to 2.98 +/- 0.01 eV, and the indirect gap increased from 2.74 +/- 0.01 eV to 2.95 +/- 0.01 eV. Several absorption peaks were found for 4f(5)-4f(5) electronic transitions from ground manifold H-6(5/2) to excited samarium ion manifold states. The free volume (V-f), packing density (P-d), ion concentration (N), polaron radius (r(p)), internuclear distance (r(i)), field strength (F), molar volume of the boron atoms (V-b), and average boron-boron distance (d(BB)) changed significantly as the SrO concentration varied in the glass network. The linear attenuation coefficient (mu) followed the order: SrO0 < SrO3 < SrO6 < SrO9 < SrO12. The synthesized SrO12 glass sample had the lowest half-value layer (HVL). The fast neutron removal cross-section (FCS) values of the SrOX glass samples were 0.085 cm(-1), 0.085 cm(-1), 0.085 cm(-1), 0.086 cm(-1), and 0.086 cm(-1) for samples SrO0, SrO3, SrO6, SrO9, and SrO12, respectively. The obtained results showed that the proposed compositions can be used in optical applications as well as gamma-ray and neutron shielding materials.