Effect of replacing B2O3 with Dy2O3 on the structural, physical, and radiation shielding properties of sodium boroaluminate glass

In this work, some transparent aluminum sodium borate-based glasses containing Dy₂O₃ have been prepared using the melt quenching method. The incorporation of Dy³⁺ ions in the glass network leads to increase and decrease the density and molar volume, respectively. The structural properties are investigated by XRD and FTIR spectroscopy. It is revealed that addition of Dy₂O₃ causes a conversion of boron coordination from BO₄ to BO₃, which indicates the increase in the number of non-bridging oxygen. Therefore, the optical band gap is found to decrease as the Dy³⁺ ions content increases. The temperature dependences of dielectric constant and AC conductivity are studied at different frequencies. The electric conductivity and dielectric parameters decrease with increasing Dy³⁺ content due to the decrease in Na⁺ ions mobility due to the blocking effect of Dy³⁺ cations in the glass network. The shielding factors have been evaluated for the prepared glasses with the help of Phy-X program. The maximum linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) is found at 0.284 MeV and varied between 0.125 and 0.140 cm⁻¹. The results revealed that the incorporation of Dy₂O₃ into the glasses has a substantial effect on the Z_eff.. The value of the Z_eff for the D1 sample, which does not include any Dy₂O₃, stays relatively the same, ranging around 7.51. We found that the rate of reduction in Z_eff was significantly high when the energy of the photons is smaller than 0.826 MeV. From the Z_eff data, we found that the addition of Dy₂O₃ to the glasses improves both their capacity to absorb and their capability to scatter ionizing radiation.