A novel chelating acid-assisted thermolysis procedure for preparation of tin oxide nanoparticles

Pure tin oxide (SnO2) nanoparticles were prepared via thermolysis of tin phthalate and tin oxalate in the presence of oleic acid (OA) as solvent. Oleic acid (OA) was employed as an organic solvent which can be applied to control particle growth and to stabilize the particles. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Synthesized SnO2 nanoparticles have a pure orthorhombic phase with average size about 12 nm.