Surfactant assisted control on optical, fluorescence and phonon lifetime in α-Bi2O3 microrods

• Surfactant induced spectroscopic properties of α-Bi2O3 microrods were investigated.
• XRD analysis reveals the decrease in crystallite size with respect to concentration of CTAB.
• The band gap of α-Bi2O3 is decreased due to the effect of surfactant.
• Structural defects due to oxygen ion vacancy decreases with the addition of surfactant.
• Surfactant induced reduction in FWHM of phonon modes in α-Bi2O3 was observed.

We report preparation of pure and surfactant added α-Bi2O3 microrods through simple chemical method at moderate temperature. Cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) is used as a surfactant. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis absorption and photoluminescence (PL) measurements were carried out to understand the effect of surfactant (CTAB) on structural, phonon and optical properties of the prepared material. It is observed that the crystallite size, optical band gap and the structural defects (oxygen vacancies) decreases due to the effect of surfactant. Raman spectral studies exhibit various phonon modes of Bi2O3 and also decrease in the FWHM of the phonon modes is observed after the addition of CTAB.

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