Effect of Annealing Temperatures on Morphological and Electrical Performances of Amorphous-Like Structured Tin Manganese Telluride Nanocomposite Films.

Abstract

Sn1-xMnxTe nanocomposite films were synthesized at various annealing temperatures within 240 min. The morphological properties of these films were investigated as a function of the annealing temperature, 50-400 °C. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed an amorphous structure of the films at all annealing temperatures tested above. However, a smooth surface was observed at the 200-400 °C due to the formation of small nanoparticles (NPs) in the film with the increasing annealing temperatures. The increase in the contact angle from 22-47° with the increased annealing temperature from 50-150 °C could be attributed to the altered properties of the surface of the film from hydrophilic to hydrophobic and elevated roughness. On the other hand, a decrease in the contact angle from 22-9° resulted from the increased the annealing temperature from 200-400 °C due to the low surface roughness and distribution of the porous matrix. Furthermore, the average sheet resistance at 100-300 °C was 4.58×106 Ω· cm-2 with an average electrical conductivity of 73.07 S·m-1. Moreover, the construction of the energy band alignment of Sn1-xMnxTe with a general electron acceptor showed the ability of electron injection due to the higher energy level of conduction band edge (ECB) for Sn1-xMnxTe than that for the electron acceptors, thereby supporting its feasibility in lithium-ion batteries, electrochemical devices, and supercapacitors.