Synthesis & Properties of SnO2 based Nanoparticals for sensors: Synthesis & Properties of SnO2 based Nanoparticals for sensor applications

In nanotechnology the size of the particle plays a prominent role which influences the electrical, optical and magnetic properties. SnO2 is a n-type semiconductor with wide bang gap of 3.6 eV at room temperature. The sensitivity, selectivity and quick response of SnO2 enables us to find many applications like transparent conducting electrodes, optical sensors, dye-sensitized solar cell and photocatalytic applications, chemical gas sensors. Most of the semiconducting nanoparticles are highly unstable, and in the absence of capping agent, they agglomerate very rapidly. For this reason bonding of capping agents to nanoparticles is necessary to provide chemical passivation and also to improve the surface state which has substantial influence on the optical and electronic properties of nanoparticles.EDTA capped pure, Zn doped and Cu & Zn co-doped SnO2 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using chemical co-precipitation method and systematically characterized the prepared samples using structural, morphological, compositional optical and electrical studies.