Facile Synthesis and Structural, Microstructural, and Dielectric Characteristics of SnO<sub>2</sub>-CeO<sub>2</sub> Semiconducting Binary Nanocomposite
Aashish Kumar, Mansi Chitkara, Gulshan Dhillon, Naveen Kumar
Abstract
Polycrystalline (1-x)SnO 2 -xCeO 2 nanocomposites, where x = 0, 0.05, and 0.10, were synthesized using conventional co-precipitation method without any traces of impurities. Structural characterization revealed that the composition with x = 0 exhibited single-phase tetragonal rutile symmetry, whereas for x = 0.05 and 0.10 compositions showed both tetragonal and cubic phase coexistence as confirmed by Rietveld refinement studies. HRTEM micrographs showed nanoscale formation of nanocomposites and also displayed fringes depicting d spacing (110) = 0.34 nm belonging to SnO 2 crystal matrix and d spacing (111) = 0.31 nm for cubic CeO 2 crystal lattice. Dielectric properties of host SnO 2 nanoparticles were improved by CeO 2 addition in the SnO 2 . The increment in the real part of dielectric permittivity was observed for CeO 2 modification of SnO 2 matrix.