Microwave assisted synthesis of bismuth titanate nanosheets and its photocatalytic effects

Bismuth titanate syntheses using wet chemical methods are comparatively time-consuming and require long durations for completion using the well-studied sol-gel method. In this work, we use microwave initiated combustion method to produce ultra-thin bismuth titanate nanosheets. This method reduces the time required for the synthesis down to minutes, when compared to hours or days in most other methods. The thickness of the synthesized sheets were tuned by adding polyethylene glycol as a capping agent, which in turn affects the band gap and subsequently, their photocatalytic properties. The samples were characterized using x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and absorption spectrophotometry. Photocatalytic effect of the synthesized bismuth titanate nanosheets on methylene blue dye also studied and variation of band gap depending on thickness of the nanosheets were observed.