Investigation on the Effect of Dopant Concentration on the Change in Shape of ITO Nanoparticles - Prepared Using Alcoholysis Method

A simple room temperature ethanol assisted alcoholysis synthesis was adopted for the preparation of Sn doped indium oxide nanoparticles. Initially, pure indium oxide nanoparticles prepared using the method results in nanocubes, sized about 80 nm was identified using TEM analysis. When the dopant Sn was added at lower concentration the formed cubes were found to contain tiny particles inside nanocubes. As the concentration of Sn increases, it is observed that the particles were no more in cubical shape. For higher concentration of Sn, the formed particles were taken the shape of nanorods which are bunched together. This is one of the interesting results obtained for room temperature chemical synthesis. The concentration of the metal dopant was analyzed using XPS analysis and the obtained XRD pattern showed the dopant shift in 2θ. This work can be further extended to the field of gas sensors. Because, the metal oxide based gas sensors systems depends on the size and shape of the nanoparticles which can improve the sensing behavior of the material.