Bismuth(III) Acetate (Bi(OAc)₃)

Technical Specifications

Product Description & Scientific Applications

Bismuth acetate, Bi(OAc)3, is the bismuth(III) salt of acetic acid (C6H9BiO6, 386.11 g/mol): a hygroscopic white to almost white powder that hydrolyses in water to insoluble basic bismuth acetate. Bismuth carboxylates have a particularly low toxicity, which is the feature supporting their use over the tin initiators employed for the same polymerisations.

It works both as a catalyst in organic synthesis and as the bismuth source for oxide, sulfide and thin-film materials, going into solution in polar organic media — ethylene glycol, or as an oleic-acid complex — rather than in water.

Applications and Reactions

• Protodeboronation: a safe, inexpensive and selective facilitator of sequential protodeboronation of di- and triborylated indoles; paired with iridium-catalysed borylation it opens access to diversely borylated indoles.
• Lactide polymerisation: initiates ring-opening polymerisation of L-lactide in concentrated chlorobenzene solution to telechelic and star-shaped poly(L-lactide). Slightly less reactive than tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate, and less toxic.
• Bismuth oxide nanoparticles: thermal decomposition in ethylene glycol with an oxidising agent gives Bi2O3 nanoparticles for X-ray contrast core-shell particles.
• Bismuth sulfide nanostructures: the oleic-acid complex reacts with elemental sulfur to grow sheaf-like Bi2S3.
• Semiconductor films: with thiourea it forms the spin-coating precursor solution for bismuth sulfide photoresistor films.
• Reference material: used as a bismuth-containing reference compound in solid-state 209Bi NMR studies.

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