EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF STRUCTURAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF COPPER DOPED TIN OXIDE NANOPARTICLES

Abstract: Tin oxide (SnO2) undoped and Cu doped nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical process using low-cost tin chloride as the starting material. The crystal structure, particle size and optical properties of the nano particles were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV absorption spectroscopy. The XRD pattern revealed the formation of SnO2 and all the samples were found to be poly-crystalline in nature. The crystallite size for the undoped sample was calculated to be 11 nm approximately. The increase in doping concentration resulted in increase of the particle size and the size of the Cu doped samples were found to be in the 14 - 20 nm range. The UV-VIS studies showed decrease in band gap with increasing doping concentration.

Keywords: Semiconductor, nano-particles, SnO2, XRD, UV-VIS Spectroscopy, Crystallite structure, optical property