Growth of tetragonal SnO2 microcubes and their characterization

Single-crystalline SnO2 microcubes were grown using the hydrothermal method without any catalyst. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis verified that the cubes are tin dioxide SnO2. Their morphology and structure was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and Raman spectroscopy. It is revealed that the cube-shaped SnO2 crystal have dimension varying from 500 nm to 5 μm as a function of chemical concentration and hydrothermal temperatures regimes. According to TEM results the cube axes are [0 0 1] direction and the side surfaces are {1 1 0} planes. A growth mechanism of SnO2 cube-shaped crystals has been proposed.