Simple route to bismuth titanate from bismuth glycolate precursor via sol–gel process

Abstract

Bismuth titanate (Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂) is successfully synthesised using bismuth glycolate as a bismuth source and acetic acid and ethanol as solvents via sol–gel process without adding a complexing agent. The synthesis parameters investigated are acetic acid to ethanol ratio, mechanical stirring time, calcination time and temperature. It is found that an increase in the acetic acid to ethanol ratio causes an increase in the gelation time, and the calcination temperature is the key factor in transformation to a crystalline Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ perovskite phase. The perovskite phase of Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ in a nanoplate shape is obtained after stirring the precursor mixture solution containing 0·1 acetic acid to ethanol ratio for 1 h at room temperature, followed by calcination of the dried gel at 600°C for 1 h.

Keywords:

• Bismuth titanate
• Perovskite
• Bismuth glycolate
• Sol–gel process

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Center of Excellence for Petroleum, Petrochemicals, and Advanced Materials, Chulalongkorn University. In addition, the authors would like to thank Mr John M. Jackson for English proofreading.