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Effect of copper on structural, optical and electrochemical properties of SnO2 nanoparticles

M. PARTHIBAVARMAN1, V. HARIHARAN1, C. SEKAR1,2,* , V. N. SINGH3

Affiliation

  1. Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Department of Physics, Periyar University, Salem - 636011, India
  2. Department of Bioelectronics and Biosensors, Alagappa University, Karaikudi - 630003
  3. Thin Film Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, India

Abstract

Pure and Cu doped SnO2 nanopowders have been synthesized by chemical precipitation method using SnCl4.5H2O, NH3.H2O and CuSO4.5H2O as raw materials. The products have been annealed at 600° C for 5 hours under ambient condition in order to improve the crystallinity. Powder XRD results show that the samples crystallize in tetragonal rutile type SnO2 phase. The average crystalline size of pure SnO2 is found to be around 10 nm. The crystal structure of the SnO2 does not change with the introduction of Cu, but the crystalline size decreases to 8 nm and 6.5 nm for Cu doping of 10 & 20 wt.% respectively. These results have been confirmed by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies. UV-VIS diffusion reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) revealed the band gap energies to be 3.56, 3.31, 3.28 eV for pure and Cu (10 & 20 wt.% ) doped SnO2 respectively. Temperature dependent resistivity measurement showed that both the pure and Cu doped samples are suitable for gas sensing applications. The electrochemical nature of the samples has been studied using cyclic voltammetric method..

Keywords

SnO2, Copper Doping, Chemical Precipitation, UV-VIS DRS, TEM, Cyclic Voltammetry.

Submitted at: May 12, 2010
Accepted at: Sept. 15, 2010

Citation

M. PARTHIBAVARMAN, V. HARIHARAN, C. SEKAR, V. N. SINGH, Effect of copper on structural, optical and electrochemical properties of SnO2 nanoparticles, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 12, Iss. 9, pp. 1894-1898 (2010)