Low-Temperature Growth of SnO2Nanoblades and Their Photoluminescence Properties

Large-scale SnO2nanoblades have been synthesized on a glass substrate covered with a 100-nm-thick SnO2buffer layer in a controlled aqueous solution at temperatures below 100 °C. The growth of the nanoblades is very sensitive to the temperature. The typical widths of the nanoblades are about 100-300 nm and the lengths are up to 10 μm, depending on the growth temperature, while the thicknesses are about few tens of nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectral analyses confirm that the nanoblades have the phase structure of the rutile form of SnO2, and no other impurities, such as elemental Sn and tin oxides were detected. An intense blue luminescence centered at 445 nm with full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 75 nm is observed in the as-synthesized SnO2nanoblades, which is different from the yellow-red light emission observed in SnO2nanostructures prepared by other methods. It is believed that the strong blue luminescence from the as-synthesized SnO2nanoblades is attributed to the oxygen-related defects that have been introduced during the low-temperature growth process.