Preparation, characterization and optical properties of tin monoxide micro-nano structure via hydrothermal synthesis

The novel stannous oxide (SnO) clinopinacoid types with nano-rectangle strips were successfully synthesized by using the template-free hydrothermal growth method. The crystalline phase, morphology, and particle sizes had been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). FESEM results had showed that the clinopinacoid-like SnO structure was in the range of 10 similar to 12 micrometers and the average size of nano-rectangle strip was about 80 nm-110 nm. The average crystalline size of the tetragonal phase SnO particles was calculated to be about 29 nm. The growth mechanism and the influence of hydrothermal reaction temperature were discussed in detail. The results had indicated that the reaction temperature exhibited a strong influence on the morphology as well as on the particle size of the resulting product. Furthermore, ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV-vis-MR) spectrophotometry had been employed to determine the optical transmittance behavior of SnO structures. The direct optical band gap of 3.12 eV was acquired by using the Davis-Mott model. Moreover, the photoluminescence (PL) properties had showed a strong emission peak at 397 nm indicating its potential for LEDs applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.