Microwave–Assisted Hydrothermal Synthesis and Optical Characterization of SnO2 Nanoparticles

Semiconductor nanoparticles exhibit size dependent properties due to quantum confinement effect that are not present in their bulk counterparts. In this work, extremely fine and pure SnO2 nanoparticles of ~1.1 nm size were synthesized by a solution process, in which amorphous precipitate of SnO2 was crystallized by microwave heating. The particles sizes varied from ~1.1 to ~2.7 nm. By XRD analysis, the particle size, crystal structure and purity of the samples were determined. The UV-Vis measurements of SnO2 nanoparticles, showed that, excitonic peaks existed at ~237, ~250 and ~279 nm corresponding to ~1.1, ~2 and ~2.7 nm clusters respectively. The STM analysis showed that the nanoparticles were spherical in shape, having narrow size distribution.