Investigation of optical, physical, and gamma-ray shielding features of novel vanadyl boro-phosphate glasses

In this paper, novel vanadyl boro-phosphate glasses with the chemical formula (100 - x)(0.5V₂O₅ -0.5P₂O₅)-xB₂O₃ (x = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 mol%) have been synthesized using melt-quenching method. The amorphous state of the glasses was checked through XRD measurements. UV-vis spectra were recorded in the range of 200-1100 nm wavelength. The optical energy band gaps via Tauc's model, absorbance spectrum fitting (ASF), and the first derivation of the absorption spectrum fitting (DASF) methods have been calculated for all glasses. Urbach's energy and refractive index of the prepared glasses also calculated. Gamma-photons shielding capability of the proposed glasses have been evaluated in terms of mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) which calculated using WinXCOM software. Based the (μ/ρ), half value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), and effective atomic number (Z_eff) were calculated. The results show that energy gaps for all glasses were close together, but the index of refraction was high around 4. Results of HVL, MFP, and Z_eff confirmed that VPB0 glass sample (free with boron) has good attenuation capability compared to other VPB (with boron additions) glasses. Moreover, gamma-ray protection ability of the current glasses was compared with that of some commercial glasses. It can be concluded that the prepared glass samples could be useful to design or develop novel shields for radiation protection applications.