Investigations on physical, structural, elastic, optical and radiation shielding properties of boro-tellurite glasses for radiation waste management applications

The boro-tellurite glasses with the chemical composition 29B2O3+20TeO2+50MO +1Dy2O3 containing different modifiers (where M = Ba, Li2, Sr, Ca, Mg and Zn) have been produced via conventional melt quenching method. The elastic, structural, physical, optical bandgap properties and the high energy photon shielding behavior of the produced glasses were extensively inspected through appropriate characterization techniques. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirms amorphous character of the as-quenched samples. The Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectral analysis reveals the presence of functional groups by the way of their stretching and bending vibrational modes. The estimation of parameters like Boron-Boron separation (dB_B), Bond density (n0), oxygen molar volume (V0), and Oxygen Packing Density (OPD) were facilitated to understand the detailed structural modifications and the moduli of elasticity (E, K, G, & sigma;) parameters were determined for the fabricated the boro-tellurite glasses. The barium incorporated present boro-tellurite glass possess lower OPD and higher average molecular weight and it might make the glass network densely packed. To ensure the radiation protection ability, defending parameters such as equivalent atomic number, mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), Effective electron density, half-value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP) and build-up factors of the titled glasses were determined employing the user friendly Phy-X software. Barium cations added boro-tellurite glass found to have the shortest MFP and HVL, as well as the lowest EBF in the low and intermediate energy zones indicating the potential for using the barium cations incorporated boro-tellurite glass as alternatives for conventional concretes in shielding and waste management applications.