Mechanical features, alpha particles, photon, proton, and neutron interaction parameters of TeO2–V2O3–MoO3 semiconductor glasses
Introduction
Natural and artificial sources of ionizing radiation (IR) and radioisotopes that produce them have been used extremely in diverse applications for human benefits. Fissionable radionuclides are used in nuclear reactors for the generation of electric power and isotopes production; sealed sources of 60Co, 201Tl, 123I are examples of isotopes used in medicine for the treatment of health trauma, sterilizing medical equipment, and as nuclear medicine [1,2]. Also, IR are applied in food processing and preservation industries, and for material characterization among others. However, the benefits derived from the use of IR is threatened by the harmful effects uncontrolled exposure to ionizing radiation has on living tissues [3]. Consequently, the use of shielding as a radiation protection procedure is a cardinal issue for continuous adoption of IR in existing and future applications. This has made research into radiation shielding materials very active in nuclear science and technology [[4], [5], [6]]. The choice of a material for shielding is hinged on factors such as: radiation quality and energy, available space, cost, required physical and mechanical description of the shield. The most important of all is that the material must have high absorption cross section for the radiation type and at energy of interest [[6], [7], [8], [9], [10]]. In radiation protection, photons (gamma- and X-radiation) and neutrons are of major concern due to their high penetration ability [1]. Therefore, shielding parameters for these radiations are essential when assessing any material for IR shielding efficacy.
Traditional shielding material such as Pb, concrete, and depleted uranium have major drawbacks that have continuously limit their application. For instance, Pb and PB-based composite have toxicity and cost related issues [4,5]; concrete suffers from cracking and unstable properties due to temperature changes which leads to changes in its chemical (hydrogen) content [6]; uranium on its own is radioactive. All these problems have research into novel materials such as glasses very attractive to research community [[7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16]]. Recently, glass materials have gained wide attention and preferred in nuclear radiation shielding systems [[13], [14], [15], [16], [17]]. Te-based glasses can be used in wide range in memory switching devices, solar cells, and solid-state lasers [18].
Commonly, addition of vanadium oxide (V2O5) to glass structure playing an important role as a conditional glass former and improve the electrical, magnetic, and optical features of the produced glasses [19]. Furthermore, introducing V2O5 into TeO2 glass structure leads to form the n-type semiconducting glasses because they include V+4/V+5 valence states [19,20].
The effect of antimony trioxide (Sb2O3) and molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) on the electrical conduction, molar ratio, and optical energy gap in TeO2–V2O5 semiconductor glasses have been reported formerly [[21], [22], [23]].
This article presents the mechanical properties, alpha particles, photon, proton, and neutron interaction parameters of TeO2–V2O3–MoO3 (TVM) semiconductor glasses. The mechanical properties including elastic moduli, hardness, and Poisson's ratio were computed based on Makishima–Mackenzie's theory. Charged and uncharged shielding parameters such as Mass and linear attenuation coefficients (MAC and LAC), half value layer and mean free path (HVL and MFP), effective and equivalent atomic numbers (Zeff and Zeq), and photon energy absorption and exposure buildup factors (EABF and EBF) were evaluated. Fast neutron removal cross sections (∑R), mass stopping power and range of alpha and proton were also computed. The correlation between shielding features and elastic moduli have been reported.
Section snippets
Glasses description
The investigated glasses in the this study are samples of Tellurium oxide (TeO2)–Vanadium oxide (V2O5)–Molybdenum oxide (MoO3) with from 40TeO2-(60-x)V2O5-xMoO3: 20 ≤ xMoO3 ≤ 60 mol% were selected from Refs. [23]. Generally, these glasses labelled as TVM-glasses and each glass sample coded as:
TVM20: 40TeO2–40V2O5–20MoO3 for x = 20 mol%,
TVM30: 40TeO2–30V2O5–30MoO3 for x = 30 mol%,
TVM40: 40TeO2–20V2O5–40MoO3 for x = 40 mol%,
TVM50: 40TeO2–10V2O5–50MoO3 for x = 50 mol%, and.
TVM60: 40TeO2–0V2O5–40MoO
Mechanical features
Values of the (nf), (nc), (F), (Vi), and (Gi) physical factors of the oxides TeO2, V2O5 and MoO3 which formed the investigated TVM-glasses (See Table 1) are collected in Table 2. The (Vt) and (Gt) values for TVM-glasses were computed via Equation (7) and Equation (8), respectively and listed in Table 3. Appling the obtained values of (Vt) and (Gt) in Makishima–Mackenzie's model (Equations (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)), elastic moduli, hardness, and Poisson's ratio are computed and gathered in
Conclusion
In this article, the mechanical properties and the capacity alpha, proton, neutron, and gamma-ray shielding competence of 40TeO2-(60-x)V2O5-xMoO3: 20 ≤ xMoO3 ≤ 60 mol% glasses were investigated. Elastic moduli, hardness, and Poisson's ratio were computed utilizing Makishima–Mackenzie's model. The MAC, LAC, HVL, MFP, and Zeff as radiation shielding parameters were evaluated. The EABF, EBF, and ∑R were also computed. The correlation between shielding features and elastic moduli have been
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University (KKU) for funding this research project Number (R.G.P2./102/41).
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