Growth and Optical Properties Investigation of Pure and Al-doped SnO2 Nanostructures by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

<em>SnO₂ nanoparticles with different percentage of Al (5%, 15%, and25%) were synthesized </em><em>by sol-gel method. The structure and nature of nanoparticles are determined by of X-ray diffraction analysis. Also, morphology of the samples is evaluated by SEM. Moreover, the optical properties of the samples are investigated with UV-Visible and FT-IR. The XRD patterns</em> <em>are indicated that all samples and incorporation aluminum ions into the SnO₂ lattice have tetragonal</em><em> rutile structure. The crystalline size of nanoparticles is decreased with increasing the Al percentage. The SEM results confirmed that the size of nanoparticles decreases with increasing </em><em>the Al percentage. Also, FT-IR and UV-Visible results showed that the optical band gap of nanoparticles</em><em> increases with the increasing the Al percentage. Finally, we have used the EDX analysis to study the chemical composition of the products. Pure tin and oxygen have been observed. The doped samples showed the existence of Al atoms in the samples of the crystal structure of SnO₂.</em>