A facile route to the fabrication of morphology-controlled Sb2O3 nanostructures

We report in this paper a facile hydrothermal route for the preparation of Sb2O3 nanoribbons assembly with different aspect ratio and Sb2O3 polyhedral nanoparticles. Study indicates that the ratio of water and ethanol affects the morphology, size and crystal phase of Sb2O3 assembly building blocks. In a mixed alcohol and water solution, the orthorhombic Sb2O3 nanoribbons with a length of similar to 4 mu m and a width 400 nm were assembled into rod-like structures, while a length of similar to 3 mu m and a width of 300 nm Sb2O3 nanoribbons were assembled into quadrangle structures with the increase of the water ratio. In the absolute alcohol solution, the cubic Sb2O3 particles with polyhedral morphology were formed. PL spectra indicate that the morphology strongly affects the luminescence property. The possible formation mechanisms involving the surfactant-assisted self-assembly and the confined growth were also proposed for the formation of the bundled nanoribbons and polyhedral granules, respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.