Ultra-long single crystalline nanoribbons of tin oxide

Novel nanoribbons of single crystalline SnO2 have been successfully synthes ized by simple thermal evaporation of SnO or SnO2 powders at high temperatu res. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) show that the nanoribbons are structurally perfec t and uniform, with widths of 30-200 nm, width-to-thickness ratio of simila r to5-10, and lengths of several hundred micrometers to a few millimeters. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) anal ysis indicate that the nanoribbons have the same crystal structure and chem ical composition found in the rutile form of SnO2. Electron diffraction (ED ) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) reveal that the nanoribbons grow along the [101] crystal direction and they are bounded by (010)/(0 (1) over bar0) and (10 (1) over bar)/ ((1) over bar 01) crysta l facets. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.