Annealing effects for calcination of tin oxide powder prepared via homogeneous precipitation

Tin oxide powders were prepared from a homogeneous precipitation using the aqueous solution of SnCl4 with urea as a precipitator at 90 °C and followed by a calcination process. The calcination was performed using two different methods; conventional furnace annealing (CFA) and rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The crystallization of the tin oxide finished at 600 °C regardless of the calcination method used. The crystallite size increased with as the calcination temperature increased due to the crystal growth and agglomeration. The tin oxide calcined using RTA has a relative smaller crystallite size than CFA at the same temperature. The tin oxide powders calcined with RTA showed higher specific surface areas than those that used CFA over a wide range of temperatures.