Open Access

ARTICLE

Effect of PbO₂ and Bi₂O₃ on the Physical, Optical, and Gamma-Ray Shielding Properties of Boro-Tellurite Glasses

Aljawhara H. Almuqrin¹, Manjunatha², M. I. Sayyed^3,4,5,*, Ashok Kumar^6,7,*, A. S. Bennal⁸

1 Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia
2 Department of Physics, School of Engineering and Technology, CMR University, Bengaluru, India
3 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Isra University, Amman, Jordan
4 Department of Physics, Dogus University, Dudullu-Ümraniye, Istanbul, Türkiye
5 Department of Physics and Technical Sciences, Western Caspian University, Baku, Azerbaijan
6 Department of Physics, University College, Benra, Dhuri, India
7 Department of Physics, Punjabi University, Patiala, India
8 Department of Studies in Physics, Karnatak University, Dharwad, India

* Corresponding Authors: M. I. Sayyed. Email: ; Ashok Kumar. Email:

Chalcogenide Letters 2026, 23(6), 3 https://doi.org/10.32604/cl.2026.083065

Received 28 March 2026; Accepted 08 June 2026; Issue published 02 July 2026

Abstract

The human exposure to hazardous ionizing radiation is increased due to the progression of nuclear technology across energy, medicine, and industrial sectors, etc. Developing transparent shielding materials is essential to overcome the structural and opacity limitations of traditional materials like concrete. The 30TeO₂-xPbO₂-xBi₂O₃-(70 − 2x)B₂O₃ (x = 10, 12, 14 and 16 mol%) glasses are prepared via the melt-quenching technique. The density (ρ) increases from 4.759 to 5.561 g cm⁻³ due to the incorporation of heavy metal oxides (HMOs). The molar volume (V_m) increases from 32.194 to 33.657 cm³ mol⁻¹. The oxygen packing density (OPD) decreased from 80.761 to 75.468. It is due to the depolymerization and the formation of Non-Bridging Oxygens (NBOs). The calculations based on the Makishima-Mackenzie model showed a consistent reduction in elastic moduli. The optical band gap energy (E_g) decreases from 2.969 to 2.813 eV. The substitution of B₂O₃ with PbO₂ and Bi₂O₃ greatly enhances photon attenuation. The radiation shielding evaluations using Phy-X software confirmed that the mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) reached as high as 72.00 cm² g⁻¹ at 0.015 MeV. This high-density PbBi16 sample provided the most compact shielding as indicated by the lowest half-value layer (HVL) of 0.0293 cm and a reduced mean free path (MFP).

---

Keywords

---

Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

---