Structural, physical, optical, mechanical, and radiation shielding features of dens glasses of TeO2-B2O3-ZnO-BaO-PbO-Bi2O3-M (M = Tm2O3, Dy2O3, Y2O3, and Nb2O5)

We fabricated a novel TeO 2 -B 2 O 3 -ZnO-BaO-PbO-Bi 2 O 3 -M (M = Tm 2 O 3 , Dy 2 O 3 , Y 2 O 3 , and Nb 2 O 5 ) glass series by the melt quench method to examine their optical, mechanical, structural, and radiation shielding capabilities. UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy and the Mott–Davis model were employed to study the glasses’ optical characteristics. The Makishima–Mackenzie model was employed to evaluate their mechanical characteristics for stability, and the Phy-X/PSD software was used to evaluate their radiation shielding capability. The key shielding parameters including half-value layer ( λ 1 / 2 ), effective atomic number (Z eff ), mean-free path (λ), and linear attenuation coefficient (μ) were assessed. In addition, the shielding effectiveness factor (SEF), the transmission factor (TF), radiation protection efficiency (RPE) from μ values and lead equivalent thickness ( Δ eq ) from λ 1 / 2 and λ were calculated. The results revealed a 0.526–0.529 packing density values range; the samples containing Y 2 O 3 and Nb 2 O 5 showed the highest packing density and elastic moduli. These changes were caused by different dopants making small changes to the glass network. The results reveal a massive SEF of ∼ 73 at 0.04 MeV, indicating a 70-fold superiority over ordinary concrete in the X-ray regime. In the Compton scattering region, Δ eq saturated near 0.580 cm, confirming that the investigated glasses offer nearly 60% of the shielding density of pure lead. Furthermore, the analysis showed that a 1 cm thickness provides an RPE of ∼ 52% at 0.6 MeV. These results imply that the glass samples we prepared are promising and transparent options for nuclear safety windows.