Effect of iron ion doping on mechanical, dielectric properties, and radiation protection effectiveness of lead barium borate glasses

Six specimens of iron (II)-doped borate glasses with the following chemical formula: 75B2O3–15PbO–10BaO3–xFe2O3: x = 0.0–0.5 mol% with an incremental step of 0.1 were produced using the traditional melt quench method. The effects of iron ion doping on mechanical, dielectric properties, and radiation protection effectiveness (RPE) of the prepared samples were investigated. The oxygen-packing density (OPD) and molar volume (OMV) increased as iron (II) content increased in the glasses network. Therefore, the created non-bridging oxygen (NBO) increased. Elastic parameters of the investigated samples enhanced as a function of Fe2O3 content. As the molar percentage of Fe2O3 increased from 0 to 5.0 mol%, Poisson’s glasses ratio fluctuates between 0.365 and 0.3700. As the energy of the incoming photon increases, the RPE tends to fall below 100% in low-energy regions. The sample with the code Fe2O3-0.5 exhibits the smallest value (R = 0.156498 cm−1) and the largest molar fraction (Fe2O3 = 0.5 mol%), as well as the maximum molar volume and Vickers hardness. Dielectric spectroscopy of manufactured glasses is investigated at various frequencies ranging from 50 Hz to 5 MHz at room temperature to explore chemical alterations caused by iron doping on dielectric spectroscopy components like the dielectric constant ((varepsilon^prime)) and tangent loss (tan δ). Results showed that the dielectric constant drastically declines with a rise in the frequency domains up to 700 Hz for all glasses doped with varying amounts of iron and appears almost constant at higher frequencies for all glasses. The inclusion of iron increased the amount of (NBO) elements in the inside molecular framework of glass, which significantly increased the dielectric constant.