Synthesis and characterization of vanadium(V) oxide reinforced calcium-borate glasses: Experimental assessments on Al2O3/BaO2/ZnO contributions

Abstract

This study aimed to synthesize and characterize novel calcium borate glasses based on nominal compositions of 55B2O3-35CaO-(10–x)Al2O3-xV2O5, 55B2O3-35CaO-(10–x)BaO2-xV2O5 and 55B2O3-35CaO-(10–x)ZnO-xV2O5 (where x; 0.5 and 1 mole%). Experimental methods were used to determine the optical, structural, physical, and nuclear radiation shielding properties. Density values of the synthesized glasses were measured between 2.5681 g/cm3 and 3.0231 g/cm3. All glasses exhibit a transmittance characteristic start in the visible region. The transmittance starts at approximately 370 nm and this value shifts up to 420 nm. Moreover, neutron and gamma-ray shielding properties of all glasses were measured using experimental methods. Our findings showed that ZnO and V2O5 substitution was more effective than other substitution types (i.e., Al2O3/V2O5, BaO2/V2O5) in terms of optical band gap values. Our findings also showed that BCBV0.5 sample with the highest optical band gap has superior neutron and gamma-ray shielding properties. It can be concluded that substituting ZnO and V2O5 is a more effective method of increasing the crucial neutron and gamma-ray shielding characteristics of calcium borate glasses.