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Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of the eulytite phase of bismuth germanium oxide powders

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Abstract

A simple hydrothermal route to the eulytite phase of bismuth germanium oxide (E-BGO: Bi4(GeO4)3) that required no post-processing has been developed. The E-BGO material was isolated from a mixture of bismuth nitrate pentahydrate and a slight excess of germanium oxide in water under hydrothermal conditions (185 °C for 24 h). The resultant materials were characterized by powder x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and luminescence measurements to verify the particle’s phase (eulytite), morphology, size, and response to a variety of excitation energy sources, respectively. Photoluminescence spectroscopic response from E-BGO pellets indicated that the samples exhibited a strong emission peak consistent with an x-ray induced luminescence of a E-BGO single crystal (500 nm excited at 285 nm). Cathodoluminescent properties of the E-BGO displayed a broadband spectrum with a maximum at 487 nm. The growth process was consistent with a standard Oswald ripening and LaMer growth processes.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank S. Bingham and C. Mcglinchey for technical assistance and the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program at Sandia National Laboratories for support of this work. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sandia National Laboratories, Advanced Materials Laboratory, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87106, USA

    Timothy J. Boyle, Eric Sivonxay, Bernadette A. Hernandez-Sanchez, Nelson S. Bell, Andrew Velazquez & Bryan Kaehr

  2. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87185-0958, USA

    Pin Yang & Marlene Bencomo

  3. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87185-1411, USA

    Mark A. Rodriguez & James J. M. Griego

  4. Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California, 94551-0969, USA

    Patrick Doty

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  1. Timothy J. Boyle
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  2. Eric Sivonxay
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Correspondence to Timothy J. Boyle.

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Boyle, T.J., Sivonxay, E., Yang, P. et al. Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of the eulytite phase of bismuth germanium oxide powders. Journal of Materials Research 29, 1199–1209 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.97

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