Structural, thermal, and radiation shielding properties of antimony-doped zinc borate glasses.

Antimony zinc borate glasses with compositions (45-m)ZnO-(55-n)BO-(m + n)SbO (0 ≤ m, n ≤ 15 mol%) were synthesized via the melt-quenching technique to investigate the impact of SbO substitution on structural, thermal, and radiation shielding properties. X-ray diffraction confirmed the amorphous nature of the synthesized glass samples. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy revealed significant structural rearrangements, including an increase in non-bridging oxygen content with rising SbO concentrations, as evidenced by the shifting and intensification of characteristic absorption bands. Differential thermal analysis demonstrated that the glass transition temperature decreased from 580 °C to 490 °C with increasing SbO, while the thermal stability parameter (ΔT) improved from 144 °C to 256 °C, particularly when BO was replaced. Density increased from 3.121 g/cm to 3.836 g/cm, and molar volume expanded from 24.01 cm/mol to 31.16 cm/mol. Radiation shielding performance was significantly enhanced: at 10 MeV, the linear attenuation coefficient increased from 0.0768 cm to 0.1142 cm (~ 49%) when replacing BO and to 0.0983 cm (~ 28%) when replacing ZnO. The half-value layer decreased from 9.02 cm to 6.07 cm at 15 mol% SbO, confirming improved photon attenuation. Overall, this work offers valuable insights into the interplay between composition, structure, and functional properties in SbO-doped zinc borate glasses.