A Closer Look at the Fabrication of Iron(II)-Doped Borate Glasses and their Structural, Optical, and Gamma-Ray Shielding Characteristics

Six samples of iron(II)-doped borate glasses with chemical composition 75B₂O₃-10BaO₃-15PbO-xFe₂O₃: x = 0.0 (Fe-0.0)–0.5 (Fe-0.5) mol.% in steps of 0.1 mol.% were fabricated via the conventional melt quench route. The structure, physical, optical absorbance, and energy gap were investigated. Gamma (γ)-ray attenuating characteristics of Fe glass blocks were explored via the XCOM and Phy-X/PSD programs and Geant4 simulation code. The color of Fe glasses was changed from yellow to brown with the addition of Fe₂O₃. The amorphous state of the Fe glass systems was detected by x-ray diffraction. Densities were found to increase linearly from 5.09154 g cm⁻³ to 5.92731 g cm⁻³, and the molar volume (V_m) exhibited identical behavior with a positive slope. The V_m was found to be 20.707 < V_m < 20.859 cm³/mol as Fe₂O₃ content in the samples was increased from 0.0 mol.% to 0.5 mol.%. Values of optical gap energy were 2.82 eV, 2.75 eV, 2.58 eV, 2.46 eV, 2.40 eV, and 2.36 eV for Fe-0.0–Fe-0.5 glass samples, respectively. The K-absorption edges for ₈₂Pb²⁰⁷ and ₅₆Ba¹³⁷ were detected at 88.0045 and 37.4406 keV, respectively, while the L3 edge for ₈₂Pb²⁰⁷ was detected at 13.0352 keV. Results showed that Fe glass samples have a higher capacity to attenuate γ-rays compared to commercial glasses (RS-360).