SrO-SiO2-B2O3-ZrO2 glass system: Effects of varying SrO and BaO compositions to physical and optical properties, and radiation shielding using EPDL2017 photoatomic library

Abstract The physical, optical, and radiation shielding properties of the SrO-SiO2-B2O3-ZrO2 glass system with varying SrO and BaO compositions were investigated. The optical basicity, oxygen packing density (OPD), and oxygen molar volume (OMV) of the glasses ranges from 0.742 to 0.786, 70.408 to 66.16, and 12.202–15.114 cm3/mol respectively as the mol% concentration of BaO from 0 mol% to 40 mol%. The refractive index (n), dielectric constant (e) and optical dielectric constant ( p dp dt ) decrease sharply as BaO content increases from 0% to 10%, thereafter a slight increment in n, e, and p dp dt is observed with an increase in BaO content from 10% to 30% and with further increase in BaO content beyond 30% again decrease in the values of n, e, and p dp dt is observed. The molar refractivity (Rm) and molar Polarizibility (αm) are affected by BaO content. In the broader perspective, Rm and αm decrease sharply as BaO content increases from 0% to 10%, thereafter a slight increment is observed with an increase in BaO content from 10% to 40%. The metallization criterion (M) and the value of reflection loss (RL) confirm that the present glasses show non-metallic character or insulating in nature. While replacing the composition SrO with BaO improves the glasses' capabilities to shield gamma radiation at low gamma energies (284–826 keV), their shielding capabilities slightly deteriorates at high gamma energies (1173–1333 keV).