Surfactant assisted zinc doped tin oxide nanoparticles for supercapacitor applications

Zinc doped tin oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by employing sol–gel method assisted with different surfactants namely cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), hexamine and polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG-400). The synthesis of uniform distribution of spherical Zn-SnO2 nanoparticles in presence of PEG-400 was optimized. The synthesized Zn-SnO2 nanoparticles were characterized by employing standard characterization techniques. X-ray diffraction results confirmed the product high-quality crystalline formation. The photoluminescence peaks appeared at 360 nm revealed the recombination of electron and hole from band to band emission of SnO2 optical properties. The vibrational properties of Zn-SnO2 nanoparticles were confirmed by both Raman and infra red spectra. The spherical morphology and nano sized product was evident in 200 nm scale SEM images. The cyclic voltammetry result of the product Zn-SnO2 assisted PEG-400 exhibited the specific capacitance value of 312.7 F/g at scan rate of 10 mV/s and revealed the superior electrochemical properties. Moreover, the EIS and GCD studies also revealed the good supercapacitor nature with specific capacitance of 132.1 F/g at current density of 1 A/g for the product Zn-SnO2 (PEG-400).