CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS OF HOMOGENEOUS SNO2 POWDERS DOPED WITH MANGANESE

Tin dioxide powders doped with manganese (O less-than-or-equal-to (Mn/ Sn)atomic less-than-or-equal-to 0.005) have been prepared through a ch emical route derived from Pechini's method. The final product is chemi cally and morphologically homogeneous, weakly agglomerated with a spec ific surface area easily controlled via an appropriate calcination cyc le. The major interest of such powders is the possibility of preparing under conventional sintering conditions (in air, for 4 h, at 1300-deg rees-C) a dense SnO2 ceramic (98 % relative density) from a starting m aterial containing less then 0.5 cationic % of dopant.