Plate-Like Bi4Ti3O12 Particles and their Topochemical Conversion to SrTiO3 Under Hydrothermal Conditions

Abstract

Plate-like Bi4Ti3O12 particles were synthesized using a one-step, molten-salt method from Bi2O3 and TiO2 nanopowders at 800 °C. The reaction parameters that affect the crystal structure and morphology were identified and systematically investigated. The differences between various Bi4Ti3O12 plate-like particles were examined in terms of the ferroelectric-to-paraelectric phase transition and the photocatalytic activity for the degradation of Rhodamine B under UV-A light irradiation. The results encouraged us to conduct further testing of the as-prepared Bi4Ti3O12 plate-like particles as templates for the preparation of plate-like SrTiO3 perovskite particles using a topochemical conversion under hydrothermal conditions. The characteristics of the Bi4Ti3O12 plates and the reaction parameters for which the SrTiO3 preserved the shape of the initial Bi4Ti3O12 template particles were determined.

Keywords

• Bi4Ti3O12
• Aurivillius layered perovskites
• molten-salt synthesis
• plate-like Bi4Ti3O12
• template plates
• topochemical conversion