Effect of alumina incorporation on restricting grain growth of nanocrystalline tin(IV) oxide

Abstract

Abstract In this project, nanocrystalline SnO2 powders were successfully prepared by (a) citrate sol-gel and (b) direct precipitation methods. Powders were characterized using thermal analysis techniques (DTA-TG-DSC), X-ray powder Diffraction (XRD), surface area (BET) and electrical conductivity measurements. XRD patterns showed the presence of the cassiterite structure. SnO2 particles, prepared through sol-gel method exhibit crystallite sizes in the range from 3.1 to 22.3 nm when the gel is heat treated at different temperatures up to 900°C. SnO2 nanocrystallites prepared by the precipitation method are comparatively larger in size. The higher specific surface area was obtained for the powder prepared using sol-gel method and the obtained average grain size (d) is relatively large compared with that of the average crystallite size. The powders show a semiconducting behavior with increasing temperature. The higher conductivity obtained for SnO2 prepared by sol-gel method can be attributed to their smaller average crystallite size. XRD of alumina doped powder exhibits finer particles than pure SnO2. TEM images showed that the particles are spherical in shape and consist of a core of SnO2 surrounded by a coating of alumina. The calculated surface area was found to decrease with temperature increases. Due to the effective role of Al2O3 additive as a grain growth inhibitor for the matrix grains, the observed surface area for the coated materials are predominantly higher than for the uncoated materials.