Creation of three dimensional octahedral tin oxide nanostructure produced by laser ablation in liquid

Abstract

The laser ablation in liquid is a simple, easy, and less hazardous method available to create nanoparticles without chemical additives. In this paper, nanosecond laser ablation was conducted in various aqueous solvents to create tin oxide (SnO[Formula: see text] nanoparticles from bulk SnO powder. After the laser ablation at 532 nm wavelength, the prepared samples were examined by UV–visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). UV–visible spectra showed that the significantly different absorption characteristics of nanoparticles are dependent on the original SnO amount in the solvent. The SEM observation clearly showed the creation of SnO2 nanoparticles of about 10–20 nm in size with irregular shapes, which were found to be secondary nanoparticles from the TEM images. Interestingly, a three-dimensional octahedral structure with a size of 220–300 nm having the surface made of aggregates of fine nanoparticles was confirmed by TEM analysis. From the EDS spectra, it was clarified that the octahedral agglomeration is made from tin and oxygen, and the electron diffraction image confirmed the formation of the SnO2 crystalline phase.