TY - JOUR
T1 - Radiation shielding features and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for zinc boro tellurite glasses modified with various oxides
AU - Mhareb, M. H.A.
AU - Sayyed, M. I.
AU - Mekki, Abdelkrim
AU - Dwaikat, Nidal
AU - Alshamari, Awatif
AU - Hamad, M. Kh
AU - Alqahtani, Muna
AU - Alajerami, Y. S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2025/12
Y1 - 2025/12
N2 - In this work, we fabricated a new glass system with composition (30-z)ZnO–35B2O3–35TeO2-RxOy, where zRxOy = 20Bi2O3, 20MoO3, and 20PbO glass system. The structural bonds for the glass system were explored using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) work, while the shielding properties were measured experimentally. In this study, we found that the core levels of O 1s spectra, particularly the deconvolution into two contributions, one due to oxygen atoms in a bridging oxygen (BO) environment and the other due to oxygen atoms in a non-bridging (NBO) environment, are of significant importance. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the glass structure and suggest potential applications in radiation shielding, with the highest number of NBO found in the base glass and the lowest when MoO3 was introduced into the glass structure, indicating a more polymerized and stable network, while PbO caused a moderate increase. In contrast, Bi2O3 had minimal structural impact, maintaining a similar BO/NBO ratio to the base glass. These structural insights were correlated with shielding behavior: despite having the highest NBO content, the Bi2O3-doped glass exhibited the best gamma-ray shielding performance due to its high density and high atomic number of Bi. The theoretical and experimental mass attenuation coefficient showed excellent agreement, with a relative difference (RD) of less than 8.9 %. The LAC values are 1.013, 1.152, 2.797, and 3.96 cm−1 for ZBTMo, ZBT, ZBTPb, and ZBTBi, respectively, at the lowest energy value of 0.184 MeV. According to the results, the ZBTBi and ZBTMo samples recorded the highest and lowest shielding properties, respectively. For example, at 1.0 cm, the RPE value of sample ZBTBi was 40 % and about 95 % (which was also the highest) at 5.0 cm. These findings confirm that both structural configuration and high-Z dopants must be jointly considered when designing efficient radiation shielding glasses.
AB - In this work, we fabricated a new glass system with composition (30-z)ZnO–35B2O3–35TeO2-RxOy, where zRxOy = 20Bi2O3, 20MoO3, and 20PbO glass system. The structural bonds for the glass system were explored using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) work, while the shielding properties were measured experimentally. In this study, we found that the core levels of O 1s spectra, particularly the deconvolution into two contributions, one due to oxygen atoms in a bridging oxygen (BO) environment and the other due to oxygen atoms in a non-bridging (NBO) environment, are of significant importance. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the glass structure and suggest potential applications in radiation shielding, with the highest number of NBO found in the base glass and the lowest when MoO3 was introduced into the glass structure, indicating a more polymerized and stable network, while PbO caused a moderate increase. In contrast, Bi2O3 had minimal structural impact, maintaining a similar BO/NBO ratio to the base glass. These structural insights were correlated with shielding behavior: despite having the highest NBO content, the Bi2O3-doped glass exhibited the best gamma-ray shielding performance due to its high density and high atomic number of Bi. The theoretical and experimental mass attenuation coefficient showed excellent agreement, with a relative difference (RD) of less than 8.9 %. The LAC values are 1.013, 1.152, 2.797, and 3.96 cm−1 for ZBTMo, ZBT, ZBTPb, and ZBTBi, respectively, at the lowest energy value of 0.184 MeV. According to the results, the ZBTBi and ZBTMo samples recorded the highest and lowest shielding properties, respectively. For example, at 1.0 cm, the RPE value of sample ZBTBi was 40 % and about 95 % (which was also the highest) at 5.0 cm. These findings confirm that both structural configuration and high-Z dopants must be jointly considered when designing efficient radiation shielding glasses.
KW - Bridging oxygen
KW - Experimental shielding properties
KW - Nonbridging oxygen
KW - XPS
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105009626326
U2 - 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2025.113127
DO - 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2025.113127
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105009626326
SN - 0969-806X
VL - 237
JO - Radiation Physics and Chemistry
JF - Radiation Physics and Chemistry
M1 - 113127
ER -