Authors : A. S. Lanje1,*, S. J. Sharma2
Page Nos : 1-10
Description :
Iron (Fe) doped SnO2 nanoparticles are prepared using co-precipitation method from SnCl2 and FeSO4 precursors and subsequent heat-treatment at 600 °C. These nanoparticles crystallise in tetragonal system. The unit cell volume increases slightly with Fe2+ doping indicating substitution of Sn4+ sites by Fe2+ ions. With increasing Fe2+ concentration, the peaks in X-ray diffraction pattern become broad because of strain effect produced from substitution of smaller ionic radius Sn4+ (0.69 Å) by large one Fe2+ (0.77 Å). The average crystallite size was found to decrease from 21 nm to 11 nm as Fe2+ concentration increases from 0 to 10 at %. In Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) study of pure SnO2, the particles are spherical in shape and particle size is found to be 25 nm, which is close to 21 nm from XRD study. Its Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED) confirms the tetragonal system. In infrared study, a broad peak centered around 650 cm–1 was observed due to Sn-O/Fe-O vibration.
