Controlled crystallization of photocatalytic active Bismuth oxyfluoride/Bismuth fluoride on SrO-Bi2O3-B2O3transparent glass ceramic

SrO-Bi2O3-B2O3 (SBBO) transparent glass ceramics are fabricated via conventional melt-quenching technique. Simply via surface fluorination of these glass ceramics, by using HF solution, we obtained the coating of cubic BiO0.51F1.98over SBBO glass ceramic. Further, with successive fluorination by using concentrated HF solutions the crystal structure of coating tends towards the cubic α-BiF3 structurefrom the cubic BiO0.51F1.98. Both the structures of cubic BiO0.51F1.98 and cubic α-BiF3possess totally different morphologies; first having compact spheres and the other shows densely packed cubes, respectively. Along with fluorination, besides the structural and microstructure transformations, we have attained the improved transparency. Synergy effects of structural transformation on the contact angle and the photocatalytic properties are studied. The fluorinated SBBO transparent glass ceramics can be used as self-cleaning structural application.