A Solution-Phase, Precursor Route to Polycrystalline SnO 2 Nanowires That Can Be Used for Gas Sensing under Ambient Conditions

This paper describes a solution-based, precursor method for the facile synthesis of uniform nanowires containing rutile SnO2 nanocrystallites. In a typical procedure, nanowires of approximately 50 nm in diameters and up to 30 mum in length were obtained as a white precipitate by refluxing SnC2O4.2H2O and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) in ethylene glycol. Structural analyses by XRD, FT-IR, and TGA indicate that these highly anisotropic nanostructures were formed in an isotropic medium through the aggregation of chainlike precursors that were, in turn, formed via polyol-mediated oligomerization. These nanowires could be further converted to polycrystalline SnO2 by calcination in air at 500 degrees C. The resultant…