Synthesis, structural, optical and experimental gamma-ray shielding properties of molybdenum-trioxide reinforced CRT glasses

While sustainable material systems have become paramount, recycling unused waste cathode ray tubes (CRTs) glass can possess great potential for radiation protection applications. With this motivation, the present study addressed the utilization of waste CRTs in combination with MoO3 towards a glass composition of xMoO₃—(100-x)CRTs where x typifies 0, 1, 3, and 5 wt%. The glass samples coded Mo0 to Mo5 were synthesized using a traditional melting technique. After successfully preparing the glass series, some sets of characterization analyses were performed to understand physical, structural, optical, and radiation shielding properties. According to the findings, density increased from 2.92 to 2.96 g/cm³ as MoO₃ was introduced into the glass network. Yet more, all glass samples exhibited an amorphous structure irrespective of varying MoO₃ doping rates. On the other hand, FTIR measurements paved the way for highlighting possible vibrational modes, such as Si–O-Si and Si–O, in the structure. According to the optical properties via UV–Vis, the direct E_g values equaled 1.75, 1.69, 1.65, and 1.61 eV for Mo0 to Mo5, respectively, whereas R values ranged from 2.8534 to 2.9281. For investigating mass attenuation coefficients (MAC), the transmission measurements were performed for 30.9–383 keV photon energy ranges using radioactive source of 133-Ba and Ultra-Ge detector. The correctness of the experimental MAC values were checked with EpiXS program and MCNP codes. It is determined that the highest MAC values changing from 0.5951 cm²/g to 0.1022 cm²/g belong to Mo5 glass for 30.9–383 keV. It is also revealed that with the increasing MoO₃ addition, EABF, EBF, HVL and MFP values of the Mo0-Mo5 glasses dropped and MAC, Z_eff and N_el values enhanced. As a result, MoO₃ substitution has improved the material characteristics of CRTs glasses.