Experimental and Monte Carlo investigations on the optical properties and nuclear shielding capability of Bi2O3Na2O-B2O3Cu2O glasses

In this study, new glasses with a nominal composition of 40Bi2O3–10Na2O-(50-x)B2O3-xCu2O (where 0 > x > 6 wt%), were fabricated by using the standard melt-quench technique. A Bruker XRD diffractometer model AXS D8 Advance was carried out to investigate the amorphous state for the fabricated glasses. The optical features such as bandgap (Eg), molar refraction (Rm), Urbach energy (Eu), metallization principle (M), molar polarizability (αm), optical transmission (T), and reflection loss (RL), were investigated by using the ultraviolet spectrum. The radiation shielding capability of the fabricated glasses was estimated by using FLUKA code and the Phy-X software for varied photon energies. The mass attenuation coefficient (µ/ρ) and other related factors such as half value layer (HVL) and effective atomic number (Zeff) were calculated. The results revealed that there is a notable effect of Cu2O on the optical properties of the glasses involved. As the Cu2O content changed from 0 to 6 mol%, the density of the fabricated glasses increased from 5.128 to 6.214 g/cm3 and the optical transmission decreased from 0.697 to 0.655. On the other hand, the Cu2O content enhanced the nuclear-shielding against gamma-rays. The shielding capability of the fabricated glasses was compared with many samples in terms of MFP. The fabricated glasses showed superior features to apply for optical and gamma shielding applications.