Structural and Luminescence Properties of SnO2 Nanostructures Synthesized by a Porcine Gelatin-Assisted Route

Porous nanostructured SnO2 with a sheet-like morphology was synthesized through a simple green substrate-free gelatin-assisted calcination process using Tin tetracholoride pentahydrate as the SnO2 precursor and porcine gelatin as the template. Crystalline phase, morphology, microstructure, and optical characteristics of the as-prepared material were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), UV-visible absorption, and Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), respectively. XRD patterns of all the samples revealed the presence of a tetragonal crystalline structure with no other crystalline phase. Moreover, the synthesized hierarchical sheets assembled with nanoparticles displayed a large surface area and porous nanostructure. The calculated optical band gap energy varied from 2.62 to 2.87 eV depending on the calcination temperature. Finally, photoluminescence spectra indicated that the nanostructured SnO2 exhibited an intensive UVviolet luminescence emission at 396 nm, with shoulders at 374, violet emission peaks at 405 and 414 nm, blue-green emission peak at 486 nm, green emission peak at 534 nm and orange emission peak at 628 nm.