Facile Synthesis of a Crystalline, High‐Surface‐Area SnO2 Aerogel

We report the preparation of a novel monolithic SnO{sub 2} aerogel using a straightforward sol-gel technique. TEM and XRD analysis show that the as-prepared material is comprised of interconnected, randomly oriented crystalline (rutile) SnO{sub 2} nanoparticles {approx}3-5 nm in size. As a result, the low-density SnO{sub 2} monolith ({approx}97% porous) exhibits a very high surface area of 383 m{sup 2}/g. /XANES spectroscopy at the Sn M{sub 4,5} edge reveals that the electronic structure of the SnO{sub 2} aerogel is similar to that of tetragonal SnO rather than SnO{sub 2} or {beta}-Sn, and that the undercoordinated surface atoms in the material introduce additional Sn-related electronic states close to the conduction band minimum.