Production of SnO2 nano-particles by hydrogel thermal decomposition method

SnO₂ is an important functional material having a wide range of applications in gas sensors and optoelectronic devices. There is a great interest for finding new cost-effective and straight-forward methods for production of these particles. In this research, hydrogel thermal decomposition method (HTDM) is used for production of high purity SnO₂ nano-particles. Cost effective reactants and green routs of production are the advantages of polysaccharide based hydrogel as starting material for this method. Visual observations indicated that there is very little tendency for agglomeration in the SnO₂ nano-particles produced by this method which can be considered as an advantage for this method over other methods for production of SnO₂ nano-particles. SnO₂ nano-particles are also characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) in terms of purity and the sizes. It is found that high purity SnO₂ nano-particles in the size range of 25-36 nm can be produced by HTDM.