Thermal behavior of SnO2-5 wt % Pd composite nanoparticles fabricated by in-situ synthetic method

In this paper, the thermal behavior of SnO2-5 wt % Pd composite nanoparticles fabricated by an in-situ synthetic method was characterized. The in-situ synthetic method made the composite nanoparticles in one process, which is different from the current method in which Pd catalyst doping is separated from the synthetic process for SnO2. Tin and palladium organic reagents were used for the in-situ synthesis. These materials enable low-temperature processing since the removal of. organic components is possible below 300 degrees C. High resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) observation revealed that the size of the synthesized particles ranged from 2 to 7 nm and that the Pd catalyst is uniformly distributed in the lattice of the SnO2 particles. In fact, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis certifies a uniform solid solution of the Pd catalyst in SnO2 since a prominent Pd peak was not found. The specific surface area of the synthesized particles measured with a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface analyzer exceeded 100 m(2)/g. The SnO2-5 wt % Pd composite nanoparticles also exhibit an excellent sensitivity of 0.62, which is defined as a ratio of R-3500/R-1000, after aging at 400 degrees C for 5 h. Thus, ultrafine SnO2-Pd composite nanoparticles can be synthesized by the in-situ synthetic method.