Influence of Copper Ions on the Structural, Mechanical, Radiation Shielding and Dielectric Properties of Borate Zinc-Fluoride Glasses

The effect of copper ions on the structural, mechanical, shielding and dielectric features of borate zinc-fluoride glasses was investigated. The elastic moduli of the proposed glasses increased linearly as a function of CuO mol.% content in the glassy network. Young’s modulus increased from 34.390 GPa to 35.093 GPa at low and high CuO mol.%. In terms of the electron stopping power (ESP), the addition of CuO into the glass matrix had no significant influence on the ESP. In all scattering regions, it was found that the Vickers hardness ( H v ) and radiation protection effectiveness values increased linearly as a function of the CuO mol.% concentration. The real component of the permittivity ( ε ′) of all investigated glasses loaded with varying concentrations of CuO mol.% decreased dramatically with increasing frequency during the low-frequency interval. The ε ′ value decreased slightly with increasing CuO content up to 0.4 mol.% and then increased with a further increase in concentration. The recorded loss tangent (tan δ ) for all the examined glasses had two relaxation peaks at 800 Hz and 100 kHz; however, copper doping increased their intensity and shifted them to a lower frequency.