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This study aimed to prepare silicone rubber composites with heavy metal oxide nanoparticles for gamma ray shielding applications. Different heavy metal oxide nanoparticles were incorporated into the silicone rubber matrix, and the prepared composites were characterized for their thermal, mechanical, and radiation shielding properties. The density of the prepared SR samples ranged from 1.25 to 2.611 g·cm−3, with SR-2 having the highest density due to the presence of lead oxide. Additionally, the thermal stability of the materials improved with the addition of HMO nanoparticles, as indicated by TGA results. The prepared SR materials showed ultimate deformation displacement ranging from 14.17 to 21.23 mm, with the highest value recorded for SR-3 and the lowest for SR-2. We investigated the transmission factor (TF) of gamma rays through silicone rubber (SR) composites with different heavy metal oxide (HMO) nanoparticles. The addition of HMOs resulted in a decrease in TF values, indicating improved radiation shielding performance. The TF was found to be lowest in SR-5, which contained 15% of Bi2O3, WO3, BaO, and Zr2O3 each. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) of the SR samples was also evaluated, and it was found that the incorporation of HMOs increased the probability of photon interactions, leading to improved radiation protection effectiveness. The half-value layer (HVL) of the SR samples was also examined, and it was found that the addition of HMOs resulted in a significant reduction in HVL values, particularly at low energy levels. SR-5 had the lowest HVL among the group, while SR-2, SR-3, and SR-4 had higher HVL values. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of using HMOs in enhancing the radiation shielding properties of SR composites, particularly for low-energy gamma rays.

The density, the molar volume, the rigidity, the UV reflectance and the glass transition temperatures of the x TiO 2 – 20Na 2 B 4 O 7 – 30PbO – 20SiO 2 – (30- x ) Bi 2 O 3 glass system were determined. These physical parameters were acquired by using the DTA, ultrasonic and UV techniques to explore the effect of TiO 2 . The replacement of Bi 2 O 3 by TiO 2 decreased these physical parameters, which suggested the glass modifier role of TiO 2 . This attitude can be attributed to the smaller ionic radii, the density and the polarizability of TiO 2 than that of Bi 2 O 3 . Moreover, according to the FTIR, TiO 2 created non-bridging oxygens in the network that decreased the bond strength of the glass system. The decreases of the rigidity, the glass transition temperature and the optical band gap are sensitive to the decrease of the bond strength and the created non-bridging oxygens in the lead alkali borosilicate network. The obtained results were discussed in relation to the role of TiO 2 in the lead borosilicate glass system.

A conventional technique has been used to prepare Heavy Metal Oxides (HMO) doped ternary tellurite glasses. The batch composition of samples were as (90-y)%TeO 2 -10%WO 3 -x%ZnO, (y=5%,10%,15%, and 20%). ZnO alter the optical and physical properties of the glasses are investigated. The thermal characteristics of the produced samples are studied using differential scanning calorimetry, and their structural conformation is determined using XRD. The existence of structural units is shown by Raman spectroscopy. Other parameters of glass samples have been calculated, including density, molar volume, polaron radius, and intermolecular distance. The absorption spectra of samples were measured in the spectrum range of 350nm to 1000nm, and the refractive index, direct and indirect optical energy band gaps, and Urbach’s energy were determined.

Adding CeO 2 to bismo-borate heavy metal oxide glasses to use in the field of nuclear safety and radiation protection is investigated. To this end, glass samples with the composition: 60B 2 O 3  + 20Na 2 O + 15ZnO + 5Bi 2 O 3  +  X CeO 2 with X  = 0.0 (Ce-0.0), 0.25 (Ce-0.25), 0.5 (Ce-0.5), 0.75 (Ce-0.75), and 0.9 (Ce-0.9) mol% glasses were prepared using the melt quenching route. The structure, physical parameters, and γ -ray protection features in the photon energy range (0.015 ≤  γE  ≤ 15 MeV) of the prepared Ce- X glasses have been evaluated. The non-crystalline state of the Ce- X glasses was confirmed by XRD measurements. The density ( ρ ) of the Ce- X glasses varied from 3.158 to 3.289 g cm −3 as CeO 2 content varied from 0.0 to 0.9 mol%. Both molar volume ( V m ) and oxygen molar volume ( V O ) decreased slightly from 28.40 to 27.49 cm 3  mol −1 and from 12.35 to 11.97 cm 3  mol −1 . The oxygen packing density (OPD) gradually increased from 81.00 to 83.57 g atm l −1 . The linear absorption coefficient ( μ ) possessed the order: Ce-0.0 < Ce-0.25 < Ce-0.5 < Ce-0.75 < Ce-0.9. The sample coded as Ce-0.9 (highest content of CeO 2 ) possessed the minimum values of half-(HVL), tenth-(TVL) value layer, and mean free path (MFP). The observed results validated the superiority of the suggested Ce- X glasses as γ -ray shields.

Due to its appealing qualities, such as its miniature size and the ability to modify physical properties through chemical synthesis and molecular design, polymer material offers considerable advantages over traditional inorganic material-based electronics. Conjugate polymers are particularly interesting because of their molecular design capabilities, which enable the synthesis of conducting polymers with a variety of ionization potentials and electron affinities (EA), and their ability to control the energy gap and electronegativity (χ). Accordingly, density functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP/SDD model was used to present possible interactions between polyaniline (PANi) and both alkali and heavy metal oxides. Total dipole moment (TDM), HOMO–LUMO band gap energy (ΔE), ionization energy (IE), EA, chemical hardness (η), chemical potential (μ), electrophilicity index (ω), chemical softness (S), and χ are calculated. TDM of PANi increased while ΔE decreased due to functionalization. The distribution of electronic charge density in molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) maps together with the results of ω reflected the electrophilic nature. The obtained results confirmed that the addition of metal oxides significantly improves the TDM, ΔE, and reactivity descriptors. A strong correlation between the experimental and calculated IR spectra was observed. Additionally, PANi–2MgO and PANi–2MnO model molecules exhibited the highest reactivity. Accordingly, PANi functionalized with MgO and MnO are promising candidates for energy storage devices.

Hatiya is the second largest island of Bangladesh and is situated near the Meghna River estuary in the central coastal zone of Bangladesh. This island hosts a few scenic beaches with a huge deposit of mineral sands. Representative mineral sand samples from various beaches of this island were collected during the year 2019, and analyzed for different mineralogical contents using state-of-the-art techniques, such as WD-XRF, XRD, SEM and EDX. This study determined various mineralogical contents, such as SiO2 (73.58%), micas (40.30%), Al2O3 (12.13%), TiO2 (0.56%), MgO (1.31%), Fe2O3 (4.71%), K2O (3.1%), Na2O (1.92%), CaO (3.16%), some earth metals, and heavy minerals, such as ilmenite (14.77%), garnet (11.02%), rutile (14.94%), magnetite (15.26%), and zircon (13.63%), were identified in the analyzed samples. It is suggested that the studied sand can be utilized as a raw material in the glass industry, due to its high SiO2 content. The approximate prices of heavy and light minerals, such as garnet (USD 75–USD 210/mt), ilmenite (USD 110/mt), magnetite (USD 84/mt), rutile (USD 840/mt), zircon (USD 1050/mt) and micas (USD 109/mt), some oxides such as K2O (USD 350–400/mt), CaO (USD 350–450/mt), Al2O3 (USD 1000-USD 1300/mt), TiO2 (USD 4000–4500/mt), and Fe2O3 (USD 650–1500/mt), and some other heavy metals (Rb, Th, Ba, V, Cr, Cs, Ni and Co), indicates a great economic value of the sand of the Hatiya Island beaches. This study recommends that Hatiya Island’s minerals should be mined responsibly and used effectively, to enhance the nation’s economy.

For high‐energy lithium–sulfur batteries, the poor volumetric energy density is a bottleneck as compared with lithium–ion batteries, due to the low density of both the sulfur active material and sulfur host. Herein, in order to enhance the volumetric energy density of sulfur cathode, a universal approach is proposed to fabricate a compact sulfur cathode with dense materials as sulfur host, instead of the old‐fashioned lightweight carbon nanomaterials. Based on this strategy, heavy lanthanum strontium manganese oxide (La0.8Sr0.2MnO3), with a high theoretical density of up to 6.5 g cm−3, is introduced as sulfur host. Meanwhile, the La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 host also acts as an efficient electrocatalyst to accelerate the diffusion, adsorption, and redox dynamics of lithium polysulfides in the charge–discharge processes. As a result, such S/La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 cathode presents high gravimetric/volumetric capacity and outstanding cycling stability. Moreover, an ultra‐high volumetric energy density of 2727 Wh L−1‐cathode is achieved based on the densification effect with higher density (1.69 g cm−3), which is competitive to the Ni‐rich oxide cathode (1800–2160 Wh L−1) of lithium–ion batteries. The current study opens up a path for constructing high volumetric capacity sulfur cathode with heavy and catalytic host toward practical applications of lithium–sulfur batteries. Heavy metal oxides are more suitable than light carbon materials to fabricate compact cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries. Specifically, lanthanum strontium manganese oxide nanofibers, with the tap density of 2.59 g cm−3, display efficient catalytic activity toward lithium polysulfides, enhancing the volumetric energy density of sulfur cathode, which can even exceed lithium–ion batteries.

In this study, five samples of tellurite-based glasses with chemical composition TeO 2 –ZnO–NiO coded as (TZN1–TZN5) have been reported to investigate their optical and gamma-ray shielding properties. Index of refraction ( n o ), molar refraction ( R M ), molar polarizability ( α M ), metallization property ( M ), and static dielectric constant ( ε ) for all the proposed glasses have been determined. Mass attenuation coefficients ( μ / ρ ) for the proposed glasses were calculated by Geant4 simulation code and WinXCOM software in the photon energy region 0.001–10 MeV. The obtained values from these methods were compared, and the correlation factor for each glass sample ( R 2 ) value was found to be 0.999. Based on the obtained values of μ / ρ and densities of the samples, different γ-ray shielding parameters such as half-value layer (HVL), effective atomic number ( Z eff ), and mean free path were evaluated. The HVL values for the selected glasses decreased in the order TZN1 < TZN2 < TZN3 < TZN4 < TZN5 and shielding effectiveness for the studied glasses were compared in the term of MFP with some traditional concretes, commercial glasses, and heavy metal oxide glasses. Results reveal that the studied glasses are promising candidates for radiation-shielding applications and can be applied in several of optical devices.

Ce/Sb/Mn different borate glass systems based PbO in concentrations of 50, 35, and 15 mol%, respectively, were prepared by the melting–annealing method. Wide chemical, structural, and radiation shielding characterizations were studied before and after 120 kGy of gamma radiation to test the possible use of glasses for immobilizing radioactive wastes. The results showed suitable density values ranging from 3.34 to 5.30 g/cm 3 increased by irradiation. FTIR spectra revealed high structural stability against irradiation correlated to the trigonal BO 3 , tetrahedral BO 4 groups, high polarizable Pb 2+ ions, and the doped metal ions. Unexpectedly, the chemical durability after in situ leaching process in H 2 O, 0.1 N HCl, and 0.1 N NaOH for ~ 3 months revealed clear improving after irradiation e.g., enhanced by ~ 25% for Ce-lead borate glass. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the glass surfaces revealed more smooth and homogenous surfaces after irradiation. Shielding parameters by Monte Carlo code (MCNP5) and Phy-X/PSD software were studied, e.g., mass and linear attenuation coefficients (MAC and LAC), effective atomic number ( Z eff ), radiation protection efficiency (RPE%), half and tenth value layers (HVL and TVL), and heaviness%. Comparing the shielding behavior of the three glasses revealed that Ce-lead borate glass has the highest values of LAC, MAC, Z eff , heaviness%, and RPE% and the lowest values of HVL, TVL, and MFP, referring to the best shielding efficiency. The whole study indicates the desired properties of glasses as immobilizers or containers for radioactive wastes, e.g., nuclear medicine units in hospitals, especially lead borate glass doped Ce ions. Graphical Abstract

Development of next-generation photonic device necessitates employing vitreous materials with high optical nonlinearities and low optical limiting thresholds. Additionally, the high nonlinear photonic glasses are suitable for nuclear radiation shielding applications. Herein, the borate-based glass specimens bearing significant amounts of heavy metal oxides (Bi 2 O 3 and PbO) activated with various quantities of Eu 2 O 3 have been explored for optical limiting, nonlinear photonic, and nuclear radiation shielding applications. Efficacy of Eu 2 O 3 content on functional features has been assessed and discussed the outcomes in detail. The open aperture Z-scan results unveiled the enhancement in two-photon absorption coefficient and reduction in optical limiting threshold with Eu 2 O 3 amount in the glass composition. Further, certain fundamental attenuation factors such as mass attenuation and linear attenuation coefficients were estimated utilizing Phy–X software in the energy ranges between 0.284 and 2.506 MeV. The mass attenuation and the linear attenuation coefficients were found to improve with the inclusion of more and more Eu 2 O 3 in the glass compositions. The outcomes of the study clearly revealed that the high Eu 2 O 3 activated lanthanum heavy metal borate glasses are productive in optical limiting, nonlinear optical, and gamma radiation shielding strategies to cutoff the high energy electromagnetic and nuclear radiations. The comparative study further validates that the La 2 O 3 –Bi 2 O 3 –B 2 O 3 –Eu 2 O 3 glasses are more advantageous than La 2 O 3 –PbO–B 2 O 3 –Eu 2 O 3 glasses.