Thermal Stability, Optical Properties, and Gamma Shielding Properties of Tellurite Glass Modified with Potassium Chloride

The synthesized glass system with a composition of (80-x) TeO2-10P(2)O(5)-10Nb(2)O(5)-xKCl mol% (where x = 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25) was successfully fabricated. The density (rho) and molar volume (V-m) have been calculated. The investigated glasses were characterized using different analysis methods (differential thermal analysis (DTA) and UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy). The radiation shielding effectiveness of the synthesized glass system was evaluated using different shielding parameters, such as mass and linear attenuation coefficients (MAC, LAC), half-value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), and effective electron number (N-eff). The results showed that with the increasing potassium chloride (KCl) concentration and decreasing tellurium oxide (TeO2) concentration, the density, refractive index, Urbach energy (E-u), and glass transition temperature (T-g) decreased, while the optical energy gap (E-opt) and thermal stability increased. As the KCl concentration increases, the values of MAC, LAC, and Z(eff) increase in the following order: TPNK5 % > TPNK10 % > TPNK15 % > TPNK20 % > TPNK25 %. Additionally, the shielding effectiveness of TPNK glass system showed good performance compared with some standard materials. The synthesized glass with a minimum KCl content has both good shielding effectiveness and good optical properties, in addition to reasonable thermal stability, which makes it suitable for shielding and optical applications.