The structural, optical, mechanical, and radiation-shielding features of transparent borate glasses containing bismuth and lead cations

A glass formulation (100-x) [75% B${}_2$O${}_3$-25%Bi${}_2$O${}_3$] - xPbCl${}_2$; x = 0, 2.5, 7 and 11 mol. % was obtained via melt-quenching steps. The glass internal structure was investigated by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The elasticity moduli were investigated using well-known models. The dependence of boron-boron distance (d${}_{B-B}$), molar volume (V${}_m$), bandgap (E${}_{Opt}$), and index of refraction (n) on PbCl${}_2$ content also was investigated. The parameters d${}_{B-B}$, V${}_m$, and n show an increasing behavior, while E${}_{Opt}$ shows a slight decrement behavior with PbCl${}_2$ content. The elasticity moduli show increasing behavior with PbCl${}_2$ content increment. Comparing bulk modulus (B) to Young modulus (E), the values of B are quite lower. This manifests that the present glasses can withstand stress in one direction better than in all directions. Moreover, the E is greater than S. This shows that the present glasses can tolerate longitudinal stress more than shear stress. A proposed method to obtain E${}_{Opt}$ from the extinction coefficient is examined. The results obtained by this method show an excellent agreement with those obtained by Tauc's method. Moreover, the effect of the partial replacement of Bi${}_2$O${}_3$ with PbCl${}_2$ on the gamma-ray shielding properties was studied using the Monte Carlo simulation code MCNP. The obtained results depict a decrease in the linear attenuation coefficient values from 0.326 to 0.300 cm${}^{-1}$ with raising the partial replacement of Bi${}_2$O${}_3$ by PbCl${}_2$. Besides, the half-value thickness and transmission factor values increased with raising the partial substitution of Bi${}_2$O${}_3$ by PbCl${}_2$. The fast neutron effective removal cross-section was calculated for the fabricated glasses where the results show a slight reduction in the $\sum _R$ values with raising the incrementation of PbCl${}_2$ content in the fabricated glass samples.