Controlled fabrication of SnO2 arrays of well-aligned nanotubes and nanowires

Highly oriented SnO2 nanotubes and nanowires arrays have been selectively fabricated via a convenient one-step wet-chemical approach using anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) as a hard template. Wall thickness of the SnO2 nanotubes was tunable. The as-prepared nanostructures were composed of fine particles with sizes as small as 5 nm. Formation mechanism of SnO2 nanostructure arrays with different shape is also discussed based on the experimental results. The structure, morphology, composition properties of the as-prepared samples were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectrum.