Study on the surface defect related luminescence properties of SnO2 nanorods and nanoparticles

(Arik Kar, et al. J. Phys. Chem. C, 2011, 115, 118): In this work, we have demonstrated the surface defect-related luminescence properties of SnO2 nanorods and nanoparticles using steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy. Defect-related bands are identified by Raman and EPR spectroscopy. On the basis of the experimental results, we have proposed a model for different relaxation processes in SnO2 nanocrystals upon photoexcitation. Analysis suggests that the surface-related defects are more prominent in smaller nanoparticles than in bigger nanorods. We have found that the PL emission and decay time strongly depend on the shape of the nanocrystals. I have presented two oral presentations on this work at the 3rd European Conference on NanoFilms held at Sevilla, Spain and at the Cambridge-Warsaw Young Scientist Meeting held at Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK. I have also presented a poster presentation on this work at the International Symposium on Chemistry and Complexity-2011 held at IACS, Kolkata. (Journal I.F=4.51, Total Citation-127).