Growth of single crystals of bismuth molybdenum oxides

Abstract

High-quality, large single crystals of ternary bismuth molybdenum oxides have been prepared by the electrolysis of molten K 2CO 3–Bi 2O 3–MoO 3 systems, in which K 2CO 3 is present as a fluxing medium. The unit-cell parameters and the compositions were determined by using X-ray diffraction and fluorescent X-ray spectrometry, respectively. The empirical formula was refined to be Bi 0.18MoO y . Thermoelectric power and resistivity measurements showed that the crystal exhibits a semiconducting behavior with p-type carriers and the thermal activation energy was estimated to be about 0.18 eV.