Detailed investigations for mechanical and gamma-ray attenuation characteristics of B2O3-ZnO-BaO-TiO2 glasses doped with PbO

The effect of PbO addition with different concentrations on four synthesized zinc titanium borate glasses with the chemical formula xPbO-(75-x) B2O3-10ZnO-10BaO-5TiO2 (x = 30, 35, 40, and 45 mol%) was explored in this study. The partial PbO substitution for B2O3 increases the fabricated glasses' density by ≈ 20% from 5.31 to 6.37 g/cm3, respectively, with raising the PbO concentrations between 30 and 45 mol.%, respectively. Besides, the substitution mentioned above enhances the gamma-ray attenuation properties where the linear attenuation coefficient increased between 69.911 and 102.245 cm−1 (at 0.033 MeV), 0.341–0.415 cm−1 (at 1 MeV), and 0.200–0.262 cm−1 (at 10 MeV), increasing the PbO concentration between 30 and 45 mol.%, respectively. Simultaneously, increases in the PbO concentration within the fabricated glasses decrease the lead's equivalent thickness between 3.82 and 2.61 cm (at 0.033 MeV), 2.35–1.93 cm (at 1 MeV), and 2.81–2.14 cm (at 10 MeV). In contrast, substituting PbO for B2O3 compounds diminishes the fabricated glasses' mechanical properties, where the microhardness decreased by 13.5 % from 4.24 to 3.67 GPa. The lead equivalent thickness (Deq) values at 0.66 MeV were found equal to 2.410, 2.232, 2.078, and 1.945 cm, and at 1.112 MeV, these values were found equal to 2.222, 2.081, 1.956, and 1.829 cm for G1, G2, G3, and G4, respectively.