Nanocrystalline bismuth titanate materials were synthesized via hot injection method for the first time. Bismuth nitrate and titanium butoxide were used as precursors of Bi and Ti, respectively. The synthesis method was modified to use aqueous solution as the solvent instead of non coordinating solvent which enable production of nanosized compounds at lower reaction temperature. During the synthesis process, titanium precursor was injected into mixture of bismuth nitrate and oleic acid at 130°C, leading to a rapid burst nucleation and followed by nuclei growth at room temperature. The synthesized compound was heated at various temperatures. XRD results showed formation of cubic phase bismuth titanate compound with space group of Fm3m at room temperature after the reaction. Presence of cubic phase bismuth titanate compound with space group of I23 was observed as secondary phase at 300°C. Meanwhile, a single phase cubic form, space group I23 was obtained for material synthesized at 600°C. FESEM images indicated nano particles of bismuth titanate materials were produced at lower temperatures. However, sintering effect was observed in material heated at 600°C, resulting micro-sized particles.

New nanocrystalline bismuth titanate materials, BixTiO1.5x+2 (x = 10,12, 14, 16 and 18) were successfully synthesized at 130 °C. X-ray powder diffraction analysis showed that these bismuth titanate materials formed a solid solution which crystallined in cubic crystal structure with Fm3m space group. The average particle size of these materials was 7.8 nm. The increase of bismuth content caused a blue shift in the DR UV-visible spectra. More Bi-O-Ti bonds were detected in Bi10TiO17 compared to the other prepared materials as evidenced in the DR UV-visible analysis. Results demonstrated that the synthesized nanocrystalline bismuth titanate materials were potential photocatalysts in phenol degradation under ultraviolet light. Amongst, the nanocrystalline bismuth titanate with Bi10TiO17 has shown the highest phenol degradation.

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