Sonochemical-driven ultrafast facile synthesis of SnO2 nanoparticles: Growth mechanism structural electrical and hydrogen gas sensing properties.

Synthesis of SnO2 nanoparticles have been successfully accomplished moderately at lower temperature by facile, rapid, efficient and mild ultrasonic irradiation method. The as-grown SnO2 nanoparticles are investigated by various characterization techniques in terms of structural, optical, electrical and gas sensing properties. XRD investigation has shown that the SnO2 nanoparticles materials exhibit single rutile crystal phase with high crystallinity. FESEM studies showed uniform and monodisperse morphology of SnO2 nanoparticles. The chemical composition of SnO2 was systematically studied by EDX measurements. Additional confirmation of three Raman shifts (432, 630, 772cm-1) indicated the characteristic properties of the rutile phase of the as-grown SnO2 nanoparticles. The optical properties of SnO2 nanoparticles were examined by DRS, and the electronic band gap of SnO2 nanoparticles were around 3.6eV. Electrical properties of the SnO2 nanoparticles measured at various temperatures have shown the semiconducting properties. Surface area and pore size of synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed from BET. It has been revealed that SnO2 nanoparticles have surface area is 47.8574m2/g and the pore size is 10.5nm. Moreover, hydrogen gas sensor made of SnO2 nanoparticles showed good sensitivity and faster response for the hydrogen gas. This method is template-less and surfactant-free which circumvents rigorous reaction work-up for the former removal, reaction temperature and reaction time compared to hydrothermal synthesis and pertinent to many other oxide materials.