Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. (2012) 58: 10401
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2012110389

Effect of nanostructured morphologies of SnO₂ on field emission properties

¹ College of Physics and Information Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, P.R. China
² Department of Mathematics and Physics, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen 361024, P.R. China

^a e-mail: gtl_fzu@yahoo.com.cn

Received: 29 September 2011
Revised: 7 March 2012
Accepted: 7 March 2012
Published online: 23 March 2012

Abstract

SnO₂ nanoneedles, nanorods and nanowires were synthesized at different temperatures, and their field emission properties were investigated in detail. On comparing the three nanostructures of SnO₂, we find that the synthesis temperature has a prominent influence on the morphology, consequently affecting the field emission properties, especially the turn-on field and the emission current density. Among them, the SnO₂ nanoneedle possesses the lowest turn-on field of 1.23 V/μm and the highest current density 2.19 mA/cm² at 3.06 V/μm. The mechanism behind the influence of the synthesis temperature on the morphology and field emission properties of SnO₂ nanostructures is discussed in detail. These results can be valuable for the application of SnO₂ nanomaterial in the cathodes of field emission based devices.