Facile low temperature synthesis and characterization of bismuth molybdate (Bi2MoO6) nanostructures: An effect surfactant concentration

Bismuth molybdates are found to be very fascinating materials due to their inimitable characteristics along with other budding requests like: ion conductors, acousto-optics, photo-conductors, sensors, photocatalyst etc. Owing to their exceptional applications, we aimed to synthesized the nanostructures of bismuth molybdate with different concentrations of CTAB as surfactant. Final products were subsequently dried and annealed at 550 degrees C for 2 h. X-ray diffraction and FT-Raman study confirm the single phase of alpha-Bi2Mo3O12 predominantly. The purity of synthesized product was further confirmed from EDX and SEM mapping analyses. The crystallite size estimated from Scherer rule are found in range of 21 nm to 30 nm and dislocation density and strain is found of the order of 10(-3). Morphological analysis was carried out with the help of SEM and indicates the variation in shape and size due to different concentrations of CTAB. The morphology of nanoparticles is spherical of size in range of 30 to 50 nm. SEM images also approved mesoporous nanostructure formation in all samples. The energy gap values evaluated from Kubelka-Munk theory are found to be reduced from 2.979 to 2.713 eV due to increase of CTAB concentration that leads to increase in particle size. With increasing the CTAB concentration from 0.1 g to 1 g the dielectric permittivity was found to be enhanced from 24 to 32. Furthermore, the electrical conductivity is also increased with frequency and follow the universal frequency power law. Synthesized homogeneous spherical nanoparticles and improved characteristics, mesoporous nature and low energy gap makes them favorable in photocatalytic applications.