A closer-look on Copper(II) oxide reinforced Calcium-Borate glasses: Fabrication and multiple experimental assessment on optical, structural, physical, and experimental neutron/gamma shielding properties

Abstract This study aimed to fabricate six different Copper(II) oxide reinforced Calcium-Borate glasses with different types of substitutions such as Al2O3/V2O5, BaO2/V2O5, and ZnO/V2O5. Accordingly, a depth characterization process has been performed for ACV, BCV and ZCV glasses with a nominal composition of 55B2O3–35CaO–9Al2O3-0.5CuO-0.5V2O5, 55B2O3–35CaO-8.5Al2O3-0.5CuO–1V2O5, 55B2O3–35CaO–9BaO2-0.5CuO-0.5V2O5, 55B2O3–35CaO-8.5BaO2-0.5CuO–1V2O5, 55B2O3–35CaO–9ZnO-0.5CuO-0.5V2O5, 55B2O3–35CaO-8.5ZnO-0.5CuO–1V2O5. Optical, structural, physical, and experimental neutron/gamma shielding properties of synthesized glasses were determined, respectively. Experiments measuring neutron exposure indicated how well glass samples attenuated fast neutrons. The RADACS software was used to record data from a BF3 gas proportional detector from the Canberra NP-100B series and a 241Am/Be neutron source with a 10 mCi activity. The absorption edge belonging to the samples are found between 420 nm and 480 nm. Our findings showed that the optical band gaps for the samples ranged from 1.179 to 2.022 eV. The wavenumber range of 400–1600 cm-1 was evaluated for the resulting peaks. The region with the highest band formation was approximately 760–1170 cm-1. While BCV0.5 and BCV1 glasses with 9% and 8.5% BaO2 insertion have the largest MAC values ranging between 2.255–0.076 and 2.156–0.076 cm2/g, the lowest MAC values varying between 0.361–0.0761 and 0.366–0.076 cm2/g belong to ACV0.5 and ACV1 glasses with 9% and 8.5% Al2O3 addition. Our results showed that the BCV glass family has superior material properties among the fabricated glasses. It can be concluded that BaO2/V2O5 glasses may be used in replacement of Copper(II) oxide glasses to provide monotonic behavior on crucial characteristics while maintaining the greatest density increase for large gamma ray shielding properties.