Abstract:
The main purpose of this work is to study the effect of substitution of zinc oxide for
bismuth oxide in the composition of (1−x)ZnO–0.25Al2O3–0.25WO3–xBi2O3 ceramics, as well as the
accompanying processes of phase transformations and their influence on the optical and strength
properties of ceramics. The use of these oxide compounds as materials for creating shielding coatings
or ceramics is due to the combination of their structural, optical, and strength properties, which
make it possible to compete with traditional protective glasses based on rare earth oxide compounds.
Interest in these types of ceramics is due to their potential for use as basic materials for shielding
ionizing radiation as well as for use as radiation-resistant coatings. The main research methods were Xray diffractometry to determine the phase composition of ceramics; scanning electron microscopy and
energy dispersive analysis to determine the morphological features and isotropy of the distribution
of elements in the structure; and UV-V is spectroscopy to determine the optical properties of ceramics.
During the studies, it was found that an increase in the Bi2O3 concentration leads to the formation
of new phase inclusions in the form of orthorhombic Bi2WO6 and Bi2W2O9 phases, the appearance
of which leads to an increase in the density of ceramics and a change in the dislocation density. An
analysis of the strength properties, in particular, hardness and crack resistance, showed that a change
in the phase composition of ceramics with an increase in the Bi2O3 concentration leads to a significant
strengthening of the ceramics, which is due to the effect of the presence of interfacial boundaries as
well as an increase in the dislocation density.
