Simulation of beta decay effects in borosilicate glasses by changing composition

Evaluation of nuclear transmutation effects due to beta decay on borosilicate glasses

“…Although the ratio of [BO 3 ] units increased, and the Q 3 (Zr) units appeared and increased linearly with the increase of the zirconium content. 23 By contrast, when substituting for cesium with barium, the density, hardness, and modulus of the NBS-Cs series glasses increased. The N4 increased with the increase of barium content.…”

“…It can be regarded that substituting for cesium with barium had no significant influence on the framework related to silica. glasses can be divided into four main regions which have been marked in Figure 2: a peak at approximately 460 cm −1 is prominent and is correlated with the Si-O-Si unit bending vibrations [24][25][26][27] ; a peak at around 796 cm −1 might be associated with the [BO 3 ] units, 23,28,29 and its intensity declined slightly with the deposited time; the band of 870-1240 cm −1 usually can be attributed to the vibration of Q n species (Q n species correspond to SiO 4 units with n bridging oxygen atoms) 24 ; a band at about 1440 cm −1 is associated with the antisymmetric stretching vibration of [BO 3 ]. 30 Except for the subtle decrease of the peak at 796 cm −1 , which indicated a slight drop of the [BO 3 ] units, no more noticeable changes were observed in the Raman spectra of the NBS-Cs series glasses.…”

“…Nevertheless, the observed change of N4 in the NBS-Cs series glasses was not so great as the change of N4 in the NBS-Sr series glasses. 23 If the change of macroscopic properties for the NBS-Cs series glasses is simply attributed to the change of boron coordination environment, it is not enough and convincing to explain that the macroscopic properties of the two series glasses have changed at the same level. The changes of the macroscopic properties of the NBS-Cs series glasses are even bigger.…”

“…For the NBS-Sr series glasses, the substitution of zirconium for strontium was from alkaline-earth metal (strontium) to transition metal (zirconium), N4 decreased with the lessening content of alkaline-earth metal and the existence of zirconium would influence structures related to boron and silicon at the same time. 23,[45][46][47][48] It can be deduced that there are two positive effects in the nuclear transmutation of cesium leading to the increase of the hardness, modulus, and density of the NBS-Cs series glasses. However, there might be a competition between the effect of alkaline-earth metal content decreasing and the effect of zirconium participation for the NBS-Sr series glasses.…”

“…As Gray reported his work, there have been few reports on the effects of nuclear transmutation. Recently, Mao et al 23 fabricated a series of sodium borosilicate glasses doped with strontium and simulated the nuclear transmutation due to the beta decay of 90 Sr by substituting for strontium ( 88 Sr) with zirconium ( 91 Zr) (the half-live of 90 Y is 64.053 h which is too short, and the process is ignored). They found the substitution of zirconium for strontium led to the borosilicate glasses' hardness and modulus decreasing approximately 10% and changed the structures of the glasses greatly related to both silicon and boron.…”