Antimony oxide nanostructures synthesised in water and their possible use in packaging of mineral water

Herein, we report a safe, low cost and reproducible approach for the synthesis of antimony oxide (Sb2O3) nanostructures. The organics free approach is based on a simple reaction of antimony powder and de-ionised water at ~270°C without harmful additives. By the morphological investigations using FE-SEM, it was observed that the grown products are nanostructures having well defined faces in the submicron range. The EDS and XRD patterns confirmed the composition and crystallinity of the grown samples. Possible involved mechanism for the growth of Sb2O3 nanostructures has been proposed. The aim of the study is to provide the feasibility of the simple route for the preparation of Sb2O3 nanostructures without additives and their possible use in packaging of water.