Wet chemistry synthesis of SnO_2/MWCNTs nanocomposites and their tuning energy bandgap properties

摘要

Semiconducting carbon nanotubes are a promising material for nanophotonic applications. The energy bandgap of carbon nanotubes can be tuned by functionalizing it with metal oxides. In this article, the focus is on the substantial reduction of energy bandgap of nanocomposite materials using SnO_2/MWCNTs by wet chemistry method. In this method, the MWCNTs are treated with different oxidizing agents and their mixtures in order to generate nucleation sites for the target material particles. The SnO_2 nanopartides were deposited on these nucleation sites by hydrothermal reaction. The energy bandgaps decreased from 3.68 eV to 2.93 eV for the SnO_2/MWCNT nanocomposites.