sol-gel synthesis, characterization and optical properties of bi 3+ - doped cdo sub-micron size materials

highly crystalline bi3+-doped cadmium oxide (cdo) sub-micron structures were synthesized by calcination the obtained precursor from a sol-gel reaction. the reaction was carried out with cadmium nitrate (cd(no3)2.4h2o), bismuth nitrate (bi(no3)3.5h2o) and ethylene glycol (c2h6o2) reactants without any additives at 80°c for 2h. resulting gel was calcined at 900 °c with increasing temperature rate of 15°c per minute for 12 h in a furnace. as a result of heating, the organic section of gel was removed and bi3+-doped cadmium oxide micro structure was produced. the obtained compound from the sol-gel technique possesses a cubic crystalline structure at micro scale. powder x-ray diffraction (pxrd) study indicated that the obtained bi3+-doped cdo has a cubic phase. also, sem images showed that the resulting material is composed of particles with the average diameter of 1 µm. also, uv–vis and ft-ir spectroscopies were employed to characterize the bi3+-doped cdo micro structures.