Synthesis and Characterization of SnO2 Nanopowder Prepared by Precipitation Method

Tetragonal SnO2 nanopowder of the range 8nm has been successfully synthesized by precipitation method. The prepared powder was characterized by thermogravimetry analysis (TGA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Experimental results show that the prepared powder was phase pure SnO2 of tetragonal rutile structure without any impurities. The optical band gap was determined to be 4.26eV, using diffuse reflectance technique with the aid of Kubelka-Munk relation. The blue shift of the band gap was attributed to the quantum size confinement effect.