Mechanical, optical, and beta/gamma shielding properties of alkali tellurite glasses: Role of ZnO

The mechanical features, linear and non-linear optical properties and the radiation (beta/gamma) shielding competences of (90-x)TeO2–5CaO–5Na2O-xZnO: x = 5–20 mol% glasses were studied. Results revealed that the molar polarizability (αMol.) decreased from 6.215 × 10−24 to 6.009 × 10−24 cm3 and the molar refraction (RMol.) changed from 15.664 to 15.143 (cm3 mol−1) as the ZnO content increased from 5 to 20 mol%. The criterion of metallization (MCri.) was observed in the range of 0.419 to 0.384. The factor of optical transmission (TOpt.) decreased from 0.814 to 0.788. The dielectric constant (εSta.) varied from 3.763 to 4.202. The electro-negativity (χ*) decreased from 0.943 to 0.792. The non-linear optical susceptibility (χ3) changed from 3.984 × 10−13 to 7.185 × 10−13 esu. The non-linear refractive index varied from 0.739 × 10−11 to 1.320 × 10−11 esu. The radiation shielding properties of the chosen glasses (TCN-Z05, TCN-Z10, TCN-Z15, and TCN-Z20) were tested in terms of gamma radiation (photons up to 1.275 MeV) and beta radiation (electrons up to 0.723 MeV). The gamma shielding investigations were performed by using FLUKA and XCOM platforms. The beta shielding study was carried out via ESTAR program by estimating TSP for all the chosen glasses. From the view of practical application, it is found that the HVL and MFP values of the chosen glasses are evidently lower than those of ordinary concrete and RS-253-G18 commercial glass, while they are higher than those of RS-360 glass at low energies.