Study of the efficiency of increasing the Bi2O3 concentration on the optical, radiation shielding and strength characteristics of 0.5TeO2-(0.5-x)WO3-xBi2O3 glasses

Abstract The work is devoted to the study of the effect of changes in the concentration of Bi2O3 in the structure of 0.5TeO2-(0.5-x)WO3-xBi2O3 telluride glasses on the optical, radiation shielding and strength characteristics. A mechanochemical method with subsequent sintering at a temperature of 1000 °C was chosen as a method for obtaining glasses. This method of producing glasses allows obtaining amorphous-like glasses with high strength values. During the determination of strength properties, it was found that an increase in the Bi2O3 concentration leads to an increase in strength by 30–50% at concentrations x = 0.2–0.25. During measurements of optical properties, it was found that an increase in the Bi2O3 concentration leads to a change in the transmission value, as well as a shift in the fundamental absorption edge. During tests to determine the radiation shielding efficiency of the synthesized glasses, it was found that an increase in the Bi2O3 concentration leads to an increase in the radiation shielding characteristics by a factor of 1.5–2 when absorbing gamma quanta with energies of 660–1270 keV, and in the case of low-energy gamma quanta, their almost complete absorption.