Uniformly Spherical and Monodisperse Antimony- and Zinc-Doped Tin Oxide Nanoparticles for Optical and Electronic Applications

Doping is an effective way to tune the band gap of metal oxide semiconductor materials. Doped tin oxide nanoparticles have proven to be effective materials for various electro-optical applications, particularly when deposited in thin-film architectures. However, doping in metal oxide nanoparticles generally leads to distorted shapes and a lack of uniformity, making the ready preparation of spherical, monodisperse doped tin oxide stand-alone nanoparticles an elusive task. This report describes a facile, solution-based method for the synthesis of stable, monodisperse antimony- and zinc-doped tin oxide nanoparticles, which opens the door to disperse these materials in a variety of media and expand their range of applications. The band gap of the tin oxide nanoparticles was successfully tuned upon doping with antimony and zinc. The tin-oxide-based nanomaterials were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Separately, the optical properties of the nanoparticles were evaluated by UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). These nanoparticles can be very effective in creating well-controlled systems for photocatalysis, solar cells, optoelectronics, multilayered devices, and for the treatment of air and water pollutants.