Room temperature single-step synthesis of cubic Sb<inf>2</inf>O<inf>3</inf> phase and its characterization studies

A simple room-temperature synthesis procedure is reported here to obtain pure cubic Sb2O3 phase from the precursors, KSbO.C4H4O6 and KOH. The quality, thermal, microstructural, and optical properties of as obtained materials are reported. The XRD pattern confirms the presence of polycrystalline cubic Sb2O3 phase with a lattice parameter, a = 1.1161(3) nm. The precursor, KSbO.C4H4O6 calcined at 350–900 °C yielded different products, unlike the single-step precipitation method. The morphology of octahedron-shaped grains to the size of 1.46–1.59 µm is observed for the as obtained Sb2O3 phase. The exothermic peak temperature (633 °C) of the as obtained present Sb2O3 phase materials with low weight loss of ~ 3.5% is slightly higher indicating the microcrystallinity of the materials. The analyzed different spectroscopic results validate the characteristics of the cubic Sb2O3 phase.