Mesoporous crystalline SnO2 of large surface area

Mesoporous crystalline SnO2 was synthesized by using templating process with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the template, combined with a pretreatment process of hexamethyldisilazane vapor prior to thermal crystallization. The combined process resulted in crystalline SnO2 exhibiting large pore volumes and surface areas that cannot be achieved by either of the processes alone, or by the conventional sol-gel process. Fully crystallized SnO2 powder with a pore volume of approximately 0.2 cc/g, a surface area of 220 m(2)/g, and mesopores mainly of 5 nm in diameter were obtained after heat treatment at 500 degreesC.