• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.55 no.7
• /
• pp.2366-2372
• /
• 2023

Are borate and silicate glasses suitable for working as shieling materials against fast neutrons? To correctly answer the above question, some silicate, and borate-based glasses were fabricated and irradiated with various doses of fast neutrons varied between 1.73 and 12.10 MGy. The color and hardness of the fabricated glasses were affected by the fast neutron fluence where the transparent glasses turned colored as well as the hardness of the fabricated glasses was decreased. The gamma-ray spectrometric analysis shows a high activity concentration produced in the barium borate glasses due to the formation of radioisotopes Ba-131 and Ba-133 reaches to 5.92E+05 Bq and 4.25E+03 Bq, respectively for sample Cd-5 Batch 3. Additionally, the gamma-ray spectrometric analysis for the sodium silicate glasses shows low activity concentrations emitted from isotopes formed due to the activation of Y₂O₃-associated impurities. These activities are low compared to that emitted by barium borate-based glasses.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.53 no.9
• /
• pp.3058-3067
• /
• 2021

Sodium zinc borate glasses doped with dysprosium and modified with different concentrations of barium oxide (0-50 mol %) were fabricated using the melting quenching technique. The structural properties of the prepared glass systems were characterized using XRD and FTIR methods. The absorption spectra of the prepared glasses were measured to determine their energy gap and their related optical properties. The density of the glasses and other physical parameters were also reported. Additionally, with the help of Photon Shielding and Dosimetry (PSD) software, we investigated the radiation shielding parameters of the prepared glass systems at different energy values. It was found that an increase in the density of the glasses by increasing the concentration of BaO significantly improved the gamma ray shielding ability of the samples. For practical results, a compatible irradiation set up was designed to check the shielding capability of the obtained glasses using a gamma ray source at 662 keV. The experimentally obtained results strongly agreed with the data obtained by PDS software at the same energy. These results demonstrated that the investigated glass system is a good candidate for several radiation shielding applications when comparing it with other commercial shielding glasses and concretes.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.75-80
• /
• 2006

We studied feasibility of three-dimensional optical memory by utilizing femtosecond laser-induced changes of transmission in photopolymers and photoluminescence in Eu and Sm ion doped sodium borate glasses. We produced transmission change by two photon absorption and obtained sub-Um size spots in photopolymers using 780 nm modelocked Ti-sapphire laser pulses. We also changed valence state of Eu and Sm ions by multi-photon absorption and achieved $\~{\mu}m$ sized spot formation in Sm-doped glasses.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.155-165
• /
• 2016

Understanding the effect of boron content on atomic structures of boron-bearing multicomponent silicate melts is essential to reveal the atomistic origins of diverse geochemical processes involving silica-rich magmas, such as explosive volcanic eruption. The detailed atomic environments around B and Al in boron-bearing complex aluminosilicate glasses yield atomistic insights into reactivity of nuclear waste glasses in contact with aqueous solutions. We report experimental results on the effect of boron content on the atomic structures of sodium borate glasses and boron-bearing multicomponent silicate melts [malinkoite ($NaBSiO_4$)-nepheline ($NaAlSiO_4$) pseudo-binary glasses] using the high-resolution solid-state NMR ($^{11}B$ and $^{27}Al$). The $^{11}B$ MAS NMR spectra of sodium borate glasses show that three-coodrinated boron ($^{[3]}B$) increases with increasing $B_2O_3$ content. While the spectra imply that the fraction of non-ring species decreases with decreasing boron content, peak position of the species is expected to vary with Na content. Therefore, the quantitative estimation of the fractions of the ring/non-ring species remains to be explored. The $^{11}B$ MAS NMR spectra of the glasses in the malinkoite-nepheline join show that four-coordinated boron ($^{[4]}B$) increases as $X_{Ma}$ [$=NaBSiO_4/(NaBSiO_4+NaAlSiO_4)$] increases while $^{[3]}B$ decreases. $^{27}Al$ MAS NMR spectra of the multicomponent glasses confirm that four-coordinated aluminum ($^{[4]}Al$) is dominant. It is also observed that a drastic decrease in the peak widths (full-width at half-maximum, FWHM) of $^{[4]}Al$ with an addition of boron ($X_{Ma}=0.25$) in nepheline glasses. This indicates a decrease in structural and topological disorder around $^{[4]}Al$ in the glasses with increasing boron content. The quantitative atomic environments around boron of both binary and multicomponent glasses were estimated from the simulation results of $^{11}B$ MAS NMR spectra, revealing complex-nonlinear variation of boron topology with varying composition. The current results can be potentially used to account for the structural origins of the change in macroscopic properties of boron-bearing oxide melts with varying boron content.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.472-476
• /
• 2024

It is important that radioactive and nuclear wastes are immobilized in a glass composition with lower melting temperatures due to their economy. In this study, the elastic and mechanical properties of sodium borate-based vitrified radioactive waste were measured using ultrasonic techniques. Many ultrasonic parameters, such as elastic moduli, Poisson's ratio, and microhardness, were calculated by measuring the ultrasonic velocities of the glasses. The ultrasonic velocity data, the density, the calculated elastic moduli, micro-hardness, softening temperature, and Debye temperature depending on the glass composition were evaluated, and the relation with the structure was clarified. It was observed that the elastic modulus and Poisson ratio increased as the Cs₂O content increased in glasses containing Cs waste. This result shows that the rigidity of the network structure of these glasses increases in contrast to the glass containing Sr.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.49-53
• /
• 2000

Sodium borate silicate glass of composition $10Na_2O-39B_2O_3-50SiO_2-CoO$ and $20Na_2O-14B_2O_3-65SiO_2-CoO$ were prepared by melting oxide mixtures in alumina crucible at $1210^{\circ}C$ in an electric furance in air for 2h, and then quenching in air. The dielectric behavior of the quenched glasses are the subject of the present work. Properties such as dielectric constant and resistivity as a function frequency and temperature are reported. From the dielectric spectra, the glass phase transition temperature has been found to decrease at a rate $Na_2O$ 20 mol% and the dielectric constants increase with increasing $Na_2O$ content. The frequency dependent resistivity response of glass exhibits a non-Debye type relaxation.