Thermal, optical, and radiation shielding capacity of B2O3-MoO3-Li2O-Nb2O5 glasses

Abstract

Multicomponent molybdenum lithium borate glasses having composition 64B2O3-16MoO3-(20  x) Li2O- x Nb2O5 (0 <= x <= 20mol%) have been synthesized using the conformist melt-quench method and encoded as LiNb0, LiNb2, LiNb4, LiNb8, and LiNb12. The structural, thermal, radiation, and optical characteristics of glasses were investigated using XRD, DTA, PSD/Phy-X, and UV/VIS/NIR methodologies. X-ray diffractometry confirmed their amorphous nature. Variations in optical characteristics such as,Eopt, Eu, alpha m, Rm, RL, M,chi, alpha degrees , proportional to 2 0 , and lambda were associated with structural changes due to the changes in Nb2O5 concentration. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) results show that Tg lies between 451 and 496 degrees C, Tc lies between 523 and 577 degrees C, Tp lies between 545 and 606 degrees C, and Tm is showing between 733 and 781 degrees C. Glass samples with a higher content of Nb2O5 have the highest thermal stability, which suggests that Nb2O5 prevents crystallization of the glass structure. The sample with LiNb12 has the lowest MFP at all energies (0.015-15 MeV), indicating that a smaller sheet thickness is required to absorb the incident radiation. The Zeff and MFP have the opposite behavior concerning Nb2O5 content. Finally, the present glasses are excellent candidates in the radiation shielding field due to the combination of improved transparency and radiation shielding qualities.