Improvement of electrochemical performance of tin dioxide electrodes through manganese and antimony co-doping

Manganese (Mn) and antimony (Sb) co-doping tin dioxide (SnO2) electrodes with low impedance and high electrochemical stability were successfully fabricated by coating pyrolysis method. The electrodes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), and accelerated service life test. The Ti/Mn-Sb-SnO2 electrodes with 6 at.% Mn doped exhibited the best stability in accelerated service life test. The accelerated service life of Ti/Mn-Sb-SnO2 electrode was 7 times longer than that of Ti/Sb-SnO2 electrode. We also calculated the optimal geometry structure and bandstructure of Mn-doping SnO2 by using the first principle method, and the bandgap of SnO2 was narrowed after introducing Mn ion. The X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) showed the deterioration of crystallinity and crystal lattice shrinkage with increasing in Mn-doping concentration. Furthermore, we provided some different coating models for preparing of Ti/Sb-X electrodes or other double dopants coating techniques.