A facile method used for controlled growth of SnO2 nanoparticles embedded in TiO2 films on FTO substrate as field emitters

Uniformly dispersed and protuberant SnO2 nanoparticles are prepared on FTO covered glass by pyrolysis and reconstruction technologies in a hydrogen environment using TiO2 sol as catalyst. By adjusting the amount of catalyst over the range of 6.5-45.5 μL, the SnO2 nanoparticles are uniformly embedded in TiO2 films and display the controllable density, size and conductivity. Also, the growth mechanism of SnO2 nanoparticles is analyzed in detail based on the experimental results. The optimized SnO2 nanoparticles prepared with 32.5 μL TiO2 sol show excellent field emission performances, with both a low turn-on field of 3.86 V/μm and remarkable field emission stability over a 480-min period. Therefore, the reported uniformly dispersed and protuberant SnO2 nanoparticles with excellent field emission properties, may serve as one of promising candidates for application in flat panel displays and nanoelectronics building blocks.