Structural, optical and electrical characterization of antimony-substituted tin oxide nanoparticles

Antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) nanostructures were prepared using chemical precipitation technique starting from SnCl2, SbCl3 as precursor compounds. The antimony composition was varied from 5 to 20 wt%. The lower resistance was observed at composition of Sn:95 and Sb:05, when compared with undoped and higher doping concentration of antimony. The average crystalline size of undoped and doped tin oxide was calculated from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern and found to be in the range of 30–11 nm and it was further confirmed from the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the nanoparticles agglomerates forming spherical-shaped particles of few hundreds nanometers. The samples were further analyzed by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and electrical resistance measurements.