Effect of Zn and Ni substitution on structural, morphological and magnetic properties of tin oxide nanoparticles

Structural, morphological, optical and magnetic properties of Zn and Zn-Ni co-doped tin oxide (SnO2) nanoparticles synthesized by sol-gel method. The influence of doping concentration on phase and particle size of the nanoparticles was determined by X-ray diffraction. The XRD study reveals that the lattice constant and crystallite size of the samples decrease with the increase of doping concentration. The change in the band gap energy of SnO2 nanoparticles influenced more by doping with Zn and Ni. The external morphology and particle size were recorded by SEM and TEM. The results indicated that Ni2+ ions would uniformly substituted into the Zn2+ sites of SnO2 lattice. The substitution of Ni creates a vital change in magnetic properties that has been measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM).