Structural, physical, optical, and gamma ray shielding properties of SnO2-based boro-silicate glasses: The influence of substituting Na2O by SnO2

The study focuses on creating new boro-silicate glasses doped with SnO2 for radiation shielding. It examines how substituting Na2O with SnO2 affects their structural, optical, and shielding properties. Density increases from 2.406 to 2.488 g/cm³ with rising SnO2, measured via the Archimedes Method. The examination for the glassy phase was performed using the XRD diffractometer. UV/Vis spectrophotometer analysis reveals reduced refractive index (2.412–1.976) and increased optical absorption-band gap (direct: 3.648–5.662 eV; indirect: 2.994–5.163 eV) with SnO2 concentrations of 0–9 mol.%). The effectiveness of the radiation shielding was assessed over the 0.059–1.408 MeV gamma-ray energy interval. The analysis demonstrates that when the concentration of SnO2 increases, the synthesized glasses' linear attenuation coefficient improves. As the SnO2 content was raised between 0 and 9 mol%, the linear attenuation coefficient rose between 0.489 and 2.892 cm−1 (at energy of 0.059 MeV) and between 0.126 and 0.128 cm−1 (at energy of 1.408 MeV), respectively. As the SnO2 content was raised between 0 and 9 mol%.