Synthesis and characterization of boron-doped Bi2O3 - La2O3 fiber derived nanocomposite precursor

Boron doped poly(vinyl) alcohol/ bismuth - lanthanum acetate (PVA/Bi-La) nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning using PVA as a precursor. The effect of boron doping was investigated in terms of solution properties, morphological changes and thermal characteristics. The fibers were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM and BET. The addition of boron did not only increase the thermal stability of the fibers, but also their diameters, which yielded stronger fibers. XRD analyses showed that boron doping increased the peak intensities and indicated that the boron doping enhanced the crystallite size. Moreover, no shifts were noticed in diffraction angles for boron doped and undoped samples. Therefore, boron doping did not significantly alter the lattice spacing. The SEM micrograph of the fibers showed that the addition of boron resulted in the formation of cross linked bright surfaced fibers. Also, grain diameters of boron doped and undoped nanocrystalline sintered powders were measured as 170 nm and 120 nm respectively. The BET results show that boron undoped and doped Bi₂O₃-La₂O₃ nanocrystalline powder ceramic structures sintered at 800 °C have surface areas of 20.44 m²/g and 12.93 m²/g, respectively.