In this study, SnO2:Ni2 powders with dopant contents ranging from to 12 mol% were synthesized by sol-gel method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) Raman spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) and photoluminescense (PL) spectra. | VNU Journal of Science Mathematics Physics Vol. 35 No. 4 2019 33-40 Original Article Synthesis and Characterization of Ni2 -doped SnO2 Powders Trinh Thi Loan Nguyen Ngoc Long Faculty of Physics VNU University of Science 334 Nguyen Trai Hanoi Vietnam Received 03 June 2019 Revised 21 June 2019 Accepted 25 June 2019 Abstract In this study SnO2 Ni2 powders with dopant contents ranging from to 12 mol were synthesized by sol-gel method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction XRD Raman spectroscopy energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer EDS and photoluminescense PL spectra. The XRD analysis shows that the samples doped with low Ni- concentrations exhibited single SnO2crystalline phase whereas the samples doped with high Ni- concentrations exhibited a mixture of SnO2 and NiO phases. The lattice parameters of the SnO2 host were independent of Ni2 dopant content while Raman mode positions were dependent on Ni2 dopant content. The PL spectrum of the undoped SnO2 was characterized by the emission peaks due to near band edge NBE emission and the violet emission peaks associated with surface dangling bonds or oxygen vacancies and Sn interstitials. Keywords SnO2 Ni2 powders sol-gel method photoluminescense 1. Introduction Tin dioxide SnO2 is an important n-type semiconductor material having a wide band gap Eg eV at 300 K for bulk . It is well-known in potential applications such as gas sensors 1 dye- sinsitized solar cells DSSCs 2 transparent conducting electrodes 3 and catalyst supports 4 . There are many methods for synthesis of SnO2 materials for instance photochemical growth at the air water interface thermal decomposition sol-gel surfactant-assisted solvothermal hydrothermal synthesis and sono-chemical method 5 . It is seen that metal cations doped SnO2 nanomaterials proved to be a successful tool for tailoring their electrical optical and microstructural properties 5 . ____ Corresponding author. Email address https .
