Synthesis and Characterization of Ce3+ Doped Amorphous Lithium Tetraborate

Amorphous lithium tetraborate glass was synthesized from polycrystalline Li2B4O7 and boric acid (H3BO3) for the development of a potential scintillation material for thermal neutron detection. The powders were heated simultaneously with cerium oxide (CeO2) to produce an optically clear glass. In the presence of excess boric acid, the Ce4+ was reduced to Ce3+ creating a fluorescent center in the glass matrix without implementing a reducing atmosphere. The mechanism of this reduction is explored, in addition to a number of other investigative techniques of the composition and morphology including ICP-OES, NMR, P-XRD, and FT-IR. The optical properties of this material were probed using UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy revealing an optically clear material in the region from 330 800 nm and a fluorescence emission peak at 360 nm.