Impact of TiO2 on physical, optical, and radiation shielding properties of tungsten-based glasses

The melt-quenching route was applied to prepare phosphate glasses of the system 20Na2O–(50-x)Na2WO4–30P2O5: xTiO2 with 0 ≤ x ≤ 25 mol%. These glasses are characterized by different techniques of characterization to determine the role of TiO2 in the physical-optical parameters of the synthesized glasses. The experimental data showed that as TiO2 content increased, the density values decreased from 4.58 ± 0.01 g cm−3 to 3.20 ± 0.01 g cm−3. Some metrics, including the optical band gap (Eg) and Urbach energy (ΔE), have been assessed using optical techniques. Eg decreases from 2.92 eV to 1.73 eV and ΔE grew from 0.41 eV to 0.64 eV as these parameters evolved in the opposite manner. Depending on the placement of TiO2 in glasses, this change is connected to the creation of non-bridging oxygens. Additionally, other parameters are determined by the UV-Visible absorption, and an increase in TiO2 mol percent causes a decrease in optical basicity (Ath), electronic polarizability (αO2-), optical electronegativity (χ*), and the electronic polarizability (αe), respectively, from 0.9244 to 0.8877 eV, from 1.9976 eV to 1.9670 eV, from 0.8064 eV to 0.7634 eV. Furthermore, as non–bridging oxygens increase, the refractive index (n) increases from 2.419 to 2.863, the dielectric constant (ɛ) increases from 5.851 to 8.196, and the optical dielectric constant (p(dp/dt)) increases from 4.851 to 7.196. It is discovered that the transmission coefficient and reflection loss are antiproportional.