title: Smart Coatings III (ACS Symposium Series)
author: Jamil Baghdachi
description: <br>Jamil Baghdachi is Professor in the College of Technology at Eastern Michigan University. <br><br>Theodore Provder is Director of the Coatings Research Institute in the College of Technology at Eastern Michigan University.<br>
zlib_text:  
   
  Coatings 2020, 10, 255; doi:10.3390/coatings10030255 
  www.mdpi.com/journal/coatings 
  Article 
  Sol-Gel Processing of Bismuth Germanate  
  Thin-Films 
  Mihail Secu, Corina Elisabeta Secu, Teddy Tite and Silviu Polosan * 
  National Institute of Materials Physics, PO Box MG 7, 077125 Magurele, Romania; msecu@infim.ro (M.S.); 
  cesecu@infim.ro (C.E.S.); teddy.tite@infim.ro (T.T.) 
  * Correspondence: silv@infim.ro; Tel.: +40-214-8-268 
  Received: 17 February 2020; Accepted: 06 March 2020; Published: 9 March 2020 
  Abstract: This study aims to obtain uniform and homogeneous bismuth germanate oxides thin films 
  by spin coating and using the sol-gel technique with different precursors, followed by low-
  temperature annealing at 560 °C. By using Bi(NO3)3 precursors, we have obtained transparent, 
  yellowish thin films with a 200 nm thickness. The structural analysis of the initial sol-gel powder 
  has shown the presence of two crystalline structures, the cubic Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) and monoclinic 
  Bi2GeO5 c