Abstract

Nickel-doped tin oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple co-precipitation method. The structural, morphological and optical properties of these nanoparticles were investigated using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The X-ray diffraction revealed that all samples are pure rutile-type tetragonal phase; and the nickel doping did not change the tetragonal structure of tin oxide but the grain crystalline size decreased to 27 and 23 nm for Ni doping of 1 and 2 wt%, respectively. The effective strain values of the samples increased with increasing amounts of doping Ni. The TEM image confirmed that the size of nickel-doped tin oxide particles is in the range of nanoscale materials. UV-Vis spectroscopy has revealed the optical band gap to be 4.06, 4.08 and 4.10 eV for pure and Ni (1 and 2 wt.%) doped SnO₂ nanoparticles, respectively.

Key words: Nanoparticles, nickel-doped, tin oxide, tetragonal, band gap