Electron-Beam Irradiation Strategies for Growth Behavior of Tin Dioxide Nanocrystals

Tin oxide is a unique material of widespread technological. applications, particularly in the field of strategic functional materials, Versatile strategies for growth of tin dioxide nanocrystals are of fundamental importance in the development of micro/nanodevices. After an extensive search of the published literature, it is found that previous nanocrystals were assembled either by aqueous synthesis, hydrothermal, and pyrolysis or by epitaxial approaches through the gas phase. Herein, tin dioxide nanocrystals prepared by sol-gel method are successfully radiated by an electron accelerator. The microstructure evolution of tin dioxide nanocrystals is evaluated by X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Raman, thermogravimetric-differential scanning calorimetry, and automated surface area analysis. It is surprisingly found that the crystallinity of the irradiated tin dioxide powders is better than the unirradiated one. The clear lattice fringes of quantum dots are investigated in detail using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The sizes of tin dioxide quantum dots are localized in the range of 2-4 nm. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area analysis indicates that the specific surface area of the irradiated sample is much higher, which is almost doubled at 1400 kGy with an irradiation rate of 8 mA/s and irradiation time of 50 s. Raman experiments show two new peaks at 538 and 680 cm(-1).