EVOLUTION AND CHARACTERIZATIONS OF AURIVILLIUS BISMUTH TITANATE BY MODIFIED SOLID STATE PROCESSING

Mild agate mortar activation followed by sintering of precursors, in resemblance to modified solid state process, was studied for synthesis of the aurivillius bismuth titanate. Hand on mill activation was carried out for eight hours followed by annealing treatment at 1000°C for 12 hours in presence of air atmosphere to obtain the proper phase. Scherrer’s formula was utilized to estimate crystallite size along with planes of orientation. Crystallite size was about 65nm while prominent peaks of orientations were (-117), (006), (111), (200) and others. FESEM and TEM studies were carried to obtain the morphology and estimated grain size of the synthesized aurivillius compound. Morphological features execute the material system to be nanocrystalline in nature as estimated from grain size measurement in correspondence with XRD crystallite size estimation. FTIR analysis confirms M-O coordinations of synthesized modified perovskite (aurivillius) sample. Optical property was evaluated from UV-VIS analysis with prominent absorption spectra in the visible region. Tauc plot was used to estimate the band gap to be about 2.86eV & 2eV for both direct and indirect transitions.