The role of TeO2 insertion on the radiation shielding, structural and physical properties of borosilicate glasses

•In this work, the effect of TeO2 insertion to borosilicate glasses is investigated.•The structural properties of BS-TeO2 glass systems are investigated by using XRD, UV-vis, and FT-IR spectroscopy.•Radiation shielding parameters of BS-TeO2 are measured in the range of 53.16-661.62 keV energy.•Tellurium are playing on important role in radiation shielding and can be replaced Pb due to environmental toxicity of Pb.•The elastic properties of borosilicate glasses are improved by insertion of TeO2. In the present study, it is aimed to be produced glass materials for radiation shielding by adding different proportions (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 mol%) of TeO2 to (79.5-x)SiO2-2.5Al2O3-5Na2O-13B2O3-xTeO2 borosilicate glasses (BS). The BS-TeO2 glasses were prepared by melt quenching method using TeO2 and BS powders. The produced glasses' fundamental structural properties were investigated using XRD, UV-vis, and FT-IR spectroscopic techniques. XRD patterns of the all prepared glass samples exhibited amorphous structure. The number of energy transitions in the UV-vis spectrum increased depending on the concentration of TeO2. Furthermore, produced glasses' physical and mechanical properties were evaluated by calculating the bond strength, packing density, bridged oxygen numbers, and molar oxygen volume. Also, the gamma-ray shielding parameters (mass attenuation coefficient, effective atomic number, electron density, mean free path, half-value layer, and radiation protection efficiency) of the glasses were measured at photon energies in the range of 53.16-661.62 keV using a U-LEGe detector with high resolution. The mass attenuation coefficients of BS-TeO2 glasses were calculated at the same energies by using the MCNP5 code. The obtained values were compared with XCOM data, and a very good agreement was achieved between MCNP5 and XCOM. These results showed that the sample containing 0.2 mol % TeO2 was the best photon attenuation ability among other samples.