Investigation of the Effect of PbO Doping on Telluride Glass Ceramics as a Potential Material for Gamma Radiation Shielding

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of PbO doping of multicomponent composite glass-like ceramics based on TeO2, WO3, Bi2O3, MoO3, and SiO2, which are one of the promising materials for gamma radiation shielding. According to X-ray diffraction data, it was found that the PbO dopant concentration increase from 0.10 to 0.20–0.25 mol results in the initialization of the phase transformation and structural ordering processes, which are expressed in the formation of SiO2 and PbWO4 phases, and the crystallinity degree growth. An analysis of the optical properties showed that a change in the ratio of the contributions of the amorphous and ordered fractions leads to the optical density increase and the band gap alteration, as well as a variation in the optical characteristics. During the study of the strength and mechanical properties of the synthesized ceramics, depending on the dopant concentration, it was found that when inclusions in the form of PbWO4 are formed in the structure, the strength characteristics increase by 70–80% compared to the initial data, which indicates the doping efficiency and a rise in the mechanical strength of ceramics to external influences. During evaluation of the shielding protective characteristics of the synthesized ceramics, it was revealed that the formation of PbWO4 in the structure results in a rise in the high-energy gamma ray absorption efficiency.

Theoretical Investigation of the Influence of Different Heavy Metal Oxides Modifiers on ZnO-Bi2O3-B2O3-SiO2’s Photon- and Neutron-Shielding Capabilities Using the Monte Carlo Method

“…The ZnO-Bi 2 O 3 -B 2 O 3 -SiO 2 anti-radiation glass is one of the most commonly used leadfree glasses in radiation protection [28]. Heavy metal oxide modifiers such as PbO enhance the shielding properties of glass when added at certain percentages [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. However, research interest has shifted towards environmentally friendly materials such as Na 2 O, Al 2 O 3 , MgO, TiO 2 , SrO, Sb 2 O 3 , and BaO instead of PbO.…”