| Summary: | With a composition (in mol %) of 29Bi2O3-70B2O3-(1-x)Cr2O3: xZnO, (where, x = 0, 0.5 and 1) three glass samples were prepared by melt-quenching process. Despite the addition of ZnO nanoparticles, the SEM- morphology studies showed that the synthesized samples were transparent glass-ceramics. XRD studies confirmed that ZnO nanoparticles were homogeneously distributed in the glassy phase. When ZnO nanoparticles were added, oxygen packing density (OPD) was observed to increase, whereas boron-boron separation (dB-B) gradually decreased. The Raman spectra demonstrated that there was transformation of primary glass forming units, [BO3] → [BO4] units from x = 0 to 1 mol% of ZnO nanoparticles in the composition. Two absorption bands (in blue and red regions) have been attributed to the d-d transitions of Cr3+ ions in octahedral symmetry sites. When ZnO nanoparticles were added in the composition, the bandgap (Eo) was found to increase, and the non-linear optical susceptibility (χ(3)) decreased. Various gamma ray shielding properties of the samples have been determined in the energy range of 1 keV–15 MeV with the help of the Windows based program EpiXS. The sample with highest concentration of ZnO nanoparticles in the composition showed better radiation shielding behaviour among the three samples.
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