Synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic activity of α-Bi2O3 nanoparticles

Monoclinic bismuth oxide alpha-Bi2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized starting from a mixture of oxalate complexes of bismuth Bi(C2O4)OH and Bi-2(C2O4)(3)center dot xH(2)O obtained by a direct solid-state reaction between a nitrate salt of bismuth and oxalic acid. The starting oxalate mixture precursors were studied by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). After heat treatment of the oxalate precursors, the obtained oxide alpha-Bi2O3 was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These alpha-Bi2O3 nanoparticles show low efficiency in photodegradation under UV light irradiation of the dye rhodamine B. (C) 2015 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Taibah University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).