Photoluminescence properties of SnO2 nanoparticles: Effect of solvents

In the present work, tin oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using chemical co-precipitation method with stannous sulphate and sodium hydroxide as starting materials. The method is simple and quick. The synthesized particles were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-Vis optical absorption and fluorescence emission spectroscopy. XRD analysis reveals that the SnO2 sample is in tetragonal structure with crystal size less than 15-20 nm estimated from Scherrer formula. The optical band gap is found to be 4.33 eV from UV-Vis absorption measurements, showing strong quantization. The effect of various solvents on absorption and fluorescence emission is studied. It is found that not only intensity of emission changes with solvent, but emission peak wavelength also changes.