Temperature and Deposition Time Dependence of the Geometrical Properties of Tin Oxide Nanostructures

Tin Oxide nanomaterial was synthesized using the horizontal vapor phase growth (HVPG) technique. The study investigated the optimum growth parameters by varying the growth temperature from 900C to 1200C and growth time of 1 hour to 5 hours. The SnO2 bulk powder with purity rate of 99.99% were placed in a sealed quartz tube with a vacuum pressure of  10 Torr and baked with the desired growth parameters. The resulting nanocrystals displayed different structures ranging from nanobelts to nanorods as confirmed by the SEM. Results from EDX and DTA showed that indeed the grown samples were congruent based on the atomic composition and thermal property of the nanomaterials. The XRD also verified that the crystal structure was rutile but with low indexed peaks. Using the same growth technique, samples were grown on Silicon (100) substrate and exhibited nanorods and nanobelts. The SnO2 nanomaterial also displayed fluorescence and photoluminescence signals. The photoluminescence spectrum has a broad emission in the visible region with peaks at 558 nm and 666 nm. The visible light emission was known to be related to defect levels within the band gap of SnO2, associated with O vacancies or Sn interstitials that have formed during the synthesis process. Keyword —nanomaterial, horizontal vapor phase growth (HVPG) technique, photoluminescence ————————————————————