Growth of dendritic SnO2 nanoarchitectures

Novel dendritic SnO2 nanostructures were successfully synthesized through thermal evaporation of the mixture of ZnS and Sn powders. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and contact angle (CA) apparatus were used to characterize the crystal structure and wettability of as-synthesized product. The results show that each dendrite-like SnO2 nanostructures consists of several branches, and each branch possess lengths of several tens to hundreds nanometers. The whole dendrite covers several square micrometers. A possible growth mechanism based on growth condition was proposed to interpret the formation of dendritic SnO2 nanostructures. The synthesized dendritic SnO2 nanostructures might be used for fabricating novel sensor nanodevices.