Influence of low-concentrated transition metal oxide, Cu 2 O 3 , impurities on the structural units, ligand field characteristics, and shielding capacity of lead-based borovanadate glass

Abstract

This study focuses on the effect of low-concentrated impurities on the general characteristics of oxide glasses. In this regard, three different small amounts of Cu2O3 (0.25g, 0.5g, and 1g) have been introduced as minor impurities to the primary components of the Borovanadate lead-based glass containing Na and Ca cations. The fast quenching approach was applied in the fabrication of the desired short-range order materials, with all melt-liquids quenched in air at the same conditions, approximately. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), microhardness (H), and UV-visible spectroscopy were used to test and characterize the prepared materials. The morphologies of the XRD patterns, FTIR charts, and UV-vis spectra revealed that the prepared samples had a short-range order with an average lattice parameter of 5.5 Å and four different forming units; BO3, BO4, VO4, and PbO4. The bulk density, microhardness, nonbridging oxygen atoms, and optical absorption amplitude all increased as Cu2O3 concentration increased. Six modes of optical absorption have been observed in the measuring range of 190–800 nm, three of which are ascribed to charge transfer and three to optical transitions generated by V cations, taking in to account that the increase in Cu2O3 concentration had no effect on the ligand field. The mass attenuation coefficients (µm), effective atomic numbers (Zeff), and kerma coefficients (Ke) for gamma rays at different photon energies were determined by theoretical calculation. Cu2O3 additives improve all gamma-ray attenuation parameters by about 20-18.5%. The findings demonstrated lead borovanadate glass doped with a high Cu2O3 content in a variety of applications, including UV blockers and dark windows for sunlight protection, as well as the photo-thermal device protective covering applications and as a shield materials in nuclear applications.