Abstract
Sodium fluoroborate glasses with the mixed transition metal oxides (Bi2O3 and ZrO2) [65B(2)O(3)-25NaF-(10-x)Bi2O3-xZrO(2), 0 <= x <= 6 mol percent] have been fabricated. According to xZrO(2) values, the obtained glasses were named as BBNZ0, BBNZ2, BBNZ4, BBNZ5, and BBNZ6 glasses, respectively. The direct influence of (Bi2O3 and ZrO2) on physical, FTIR, optical, and gamma-ray shielding of the BBNZ-glasses has been investigated. The density of the fabricated glasses decreases linearly with about 18% as Bi2O3 is replaced by ZrO2. The number of N-4 for BBNZ0 glass sample is about 0.47, which indicate that B2O3 is modified by NaF and Bi2O3 and the replacement of Bi2O3 by ZrO2 results in a slight decrease in the N-4 value. Values of the direct optical bandgap were varied from 3.012 to 3.198 eV, while the indirect bandgap was varied from 2.665 to 2.913 eV for BBNZ0-BBNZ6 glasses. The refractive index of the investigated glasses is high, therefore can be applied in several optical applications. The linear (mass) attenuation coefficients LAC (MAC) varied from 0.11-169.81 (0.032-48.447), 0.10-139.81 (0.031-42.238), 0.09-109.765 (0.029-35.069), 0.09-94.09 (0.028-31.051), to 0.08-76.89 cm(-1) (0.027-26.697 cm(2)/g) for BBNZ0-BBNZ6, respectively. As expected the trend in half value layer (HVL) value at each energy is (HVL)(BBNZ0) < (HVL)(BBNZ2) < (HVL)(BBNZ4) < (HVL)(BBNZ5) < (HVL)(BBNZ6). The total stopping power (TSP) of the particles follow the order of increasing Bi2O3 content thus BBNZ0 has the highest TSP while BBNZ6 has the least. The present BBNZ-glasses are capable of functioning as thermal neutron and gamma-ray absorbers.