Self-Catalytic Growth of Tin Oxide Nanowires by Chemical Vapor Deposition Process

Bongani S Thabethe,David E Motaung,Gerald F Malgas,Thomas Malwela,Christopher J Arendse

doi:10.1155/2013/712361

Abstract

We report on the synthesis of tin oxide (SnO2) nanowires by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Commercially bought SnO nanopowders were vaporized at 1050°C for 30 minutes with argon gas continuously passing through the system. The as-synthesized products were characterized using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The band gap of the nanowires determined from UV-visible absorption was around 3.7 eV. The SEM micrographs revealed “wool-like” structure which contains nanoribbons and nanowires with liquid droplets at the tips. Nanowires typically have diameter in the range of 50–200 nm and length 10–100 μm. These nanowires followed the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism.

Highlights

One-dimensional (1D) metal oxides semiconductor nanomaterials have attracted great interest as CO gas sensors due to their novel electronic and optical properties in nanodevices and because of their active sites to adsorb gas molecules and catalytic reactions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
We report on the self-catalytic growth of SnO2 nanowires using a chemical vapor deposition process
The microstructures and surface compositions of the nanowires were characterized by SEMEDS, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and TEM

Summary

Introduction

One-dimensional (1D) metal oxides semiconductor nanomaterials have attracted great interest as CO gas sensors due to their novel electronic and optical properties in nanodevices and because of their active sites to adsorb gas molecules and catalytic reactions [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Due to the enhanced surface-to-volume ratio of 1D structures, tin oxide nanowires have been shown to have excellent sensing performance which is comparable to or even better than the thin film sensors [12,13,14] These structures with a high aspect ratio (i.e., size confinement in two coordinates) offer better crystallinity, higher integration density, and lower power consumption [15]. Journal of Nanomaterials properties of the as-grown nanowires at room temperature are studied

Experimental Details

Results and Discussion

Conclusions