Morphology, structure and optical properties of 3D Bi2O3 hierarchical architectures

3D Bi2O3 hierarchical architectures were successfully fabricated from electrodeposited bismuth (Bi) film by controlling the ramp rate and reaction temperature of thermal oxidation process. Surface morphology observations show that the 3D Bi2O3 hierarchical architectures exhibit flower-like architectures assembled by dozens of 20 nanoplates with a thickness of 25 nm. Characterizations of crystal structure reveal that the 20 nanoplates are well-crystallized beta-Bi2O3. Furthermore, the 3D Bi2O3 hierarchical architectures exhibit a strong and wide photoluminescence (PL) signal in the range from 500 to 900 nm, with a maximum peak at 759 nm. Such unique architectures are expected to be utilized as next generation of nano-scale devices, such as sensors, optics and electronics. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.