Solvothermal synthesis and characterization of ultrathin SnO nanosheets

Two-dimensional (2-D) nanomaterials have attracted remarkable interest in recent years. Herein, we report the synthesis of 2-D ultrathin nanosheets of SnO via a simple solvothermal method by using SnCl2 center dot 2H(2)O and NH3 center dot H2O as reactants and ethanol as solvent. The as-prepared sample was characterized by using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and high resolution TEM (HRTM), respectively. Results indicate that that the as-synthesized ultrathin SnO nanosheets are well crystalline in nature and about 4 nm in thickness. N-2 absorption-desorption measurement showed that the specific surface area of the ultrathin SnO nanosheets is 35.7 m(2)/g. The band gap energy of the ultrathin SnO nanosheets is estimated to be 3.62 eV, which is blue shifted to its bulk counterpart due to the quantum effect. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.