Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Behaviour of Cubic Structured Nanocrystalline Bismuth Titanate

Abstract

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.