Effect of TiO2/V2O5 substitution on the optical and radiation shielding properties of alkali borate glasses: A Monte Carlo investigation

In this paper, we used Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the effect of TiO₂/V₂O₅ substitution on the radiation shielding properties of alkali borate glasses in the chemical form of 30Li₂O+55B₂O₃+5ZnO + xTiO₂+(10 - x)V₂O₅, where x = 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10 mol%. Also, the optical properties were examined by evaluating several factors such as molar refraction (R_m), metallization criterion (M), molar polarizability (α_m), dielectric coefficients (static and optical), optical transmission (T), and reflection loss (R_L). The radiation shielding properties of the tested glasses were estimated by determining the mass attenuation coefficient, and other related factors such as the tenth value layer (TVL), the mean free path (MFP), the electron total stopping powers (Ψ_e) and the electron continuous slowing down approximation range (CSDA) (Φ_e) for different energy values. The results of Geant4 Monte Carlo were compared with the theoretical values calculated by XCOM platform. The results revealed that the TiO₂/V₂O₅ substitution had a remarkable influence on the gamma shielding properties for the tested glasses. On the other hand, the optical properties slightly changed by the TiO₂/V₂O₅ substitution. The gamma shielding properties of the tested glasses were compared with many samples in terms of MFP. The present glasses showed superior features to apply for optical and radiation shielding applications.