Nanocrystalline porous tin dioxide (SnO2) materials have been obtained employing room temperature ionic liquids (1-hexadecyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide, C16MimBr) as a template via a green sol−gel method at ambient temperature followed by a suitable thermal treatment. These materials have been thoroughly characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, and nitrogen adsorption−desorption. A careful tuning of heat-treatment procedures allowed the preparation of SnO2 functional materials with Brunauer−Emmett−Teller surface areas ranging from 38 to 140 m2 g−1, an average pore size between super-micropore (1−2 nm) and mesopore (10 nm) range, and a mean particle size from 3.0 to 10.0 nm. The applications in gas sensors for the nanostructures reveal that the obtained SnO2 materials exhibit highly sensitive, fast-responding, reproducible, and size selective sensing behaviors. The sensor characteristics were discussed in relation to the architectures of the materials, which disclose that the gas-sensor properties are strongly structure-dependent.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.