Structurally enriched aliovalent Cd2+-doped SnO2 nanocrystals and their physicochemical investigations

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 32; no. 12; pp. 16623 - 16633
• Main Authors: Vashisht, Aseem, Dhillon, Gulshan, Panwar, Ranvir Singh, Bhatia, Anupreet Kaur, Tripathi, Shalini, Sharma, Navdeep, Saxena, Anju, Kumar, Naveen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cadmium; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composition; Crystal structure; Dielectric properties; Grain size; Materials Science; Nanocrystals; Optical and Electronic Materials; Photomicrographs; Scale formation; Synthesis; Thermal analysis; Tin dioxide; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-021-06217-6

In the present study, pristine and Cd 2+ modified SnO 2 compositions [Sn (1− y ) Cd y O 2 , where y  = 0, 0.05, and 0.10] were synthesized by co-precipitation technique. Structural studies were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis which revealed that all the compositions exhibited tetragonal rutile-type crystal structure with P4 2/ mnm space group with high purity (absence of secondary phases). FTIR spectra confirmed the formation of pristine and Cd 2+ modified SnO 2 nanocrystals as bend at 560 cm −1 attributed to Sn–O–Sn stretching vibrations. UV–Vis optical spectra displayed a sharp peak at ~ 304 nm and ~ 311 nm belonging to UV region (200–400 nm) and a small hump at 561 nm corresponding to the visible region for Cd 2+ -doped compositions. FESEM micrographs depicted the nano-scale formation of pristine and Cd 2+ modified SnO 2 nanocrystals calcined at 600 °C and showed that grain size increased from 45.66 ± 1.2 nm to 60.27 ± 2.7 nm with increasing Cd 2+ concentrations. HRTEM images confirmed the tetragonal crystallinity of as-synthesized nanocrystals as fringes attributed to (110) plane orientation with d-spacing ~ 0.34 nm exactly matched with XRD studies. Dielectric analysis showed that dielectric constant decreased with increasing Cd 2+ in the compositions and I – V curves illustrated linear or ohmic behavior with diminishing values of resistances for higher Cd 2+ concentrations.