Structure and texture of self-assembled nanoporous SnO2

Synthesis of nanoporous SnO 2 by a surfactant self-assembling sol–gel technique is described in this work. The synthesis was performed at room temperature by employing tin(IV) tetra-tert-amyloxide, Sn (OAm t ) 4 , as the porous SnO 2 frame precursor in the presence of the micelles of a cationic surfactant solution of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), which, in turn, acts as the SnO 2 particle nanostructure director. The pH of the Sn alkoxide–CTAB mixture was adjusted to a value of 2 with HCl in order to eventually achieve a finely dispersed SnO 2 gel structure. The final annealed materials were attained after thermal treatment of the above mentioned SnO 2 gel systems between 300 and 500 °C. This annealing procedure burned off different numbers of CTAB micelles and caused some sintering of the substrates depending on the final calcination temperature, thus producing truly mesoporous (cylindrical) SnO 2 skeletons of pore sizes 5–9 nm and surface areas between 60 and 100 m 2 g −1 as well as some other assorted structural and textural characteristics.