Influence of amine additives on morphology and phase of antimony(iii) oxide nanostructures and study of their optical properties

Abstract

Antimony trioxide nanostructures were synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction in the presence of various amines. The effect of the reaction temperature, the reaction time and kind of amine on the formation and morphology of antimony trioxide nanostructures was investigated. The morphology, structure and properties of synthesized products were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Various morphologies have been observed with different amines. The broom-like morphology was obtained by adding tetramethylethylenediamine to an aqueous solution of antimony trichloride. Depending on the reaction conditions, nanosheets of antimony trioxide could be produced in the form of pure orthorhombic and also the micro-sized octahedra morphology had a cubic phase. The formation of both the orthorhombic and the cubic polymorphs was confirmed by different spectroscopies. We could also obtain both the pure cubic phase and orthorhombic phase by changing the temperature and using 1,2-diaminocyclohexane and ethylenediamine. Furthermore, the optical properties of the synthesized antimony trioxide nanostructures were investigated by photoluminescence and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy.