Water bathing synthesis of high-surface-area nanocrystal-assembled SnO2 particles

Nanocrystal assembled SnO2 particles were synthesized in aqueous solutions. The particles showed high BET surface area of 276 m2/g. It was much higher than that of our previous studies. BJH analyses indicated that the particles had pores of about 2–5 nm. The particles included two kinds of morphologies. The first particles were about 300–1000 nm in diameter, which were assemblies of acicular crystals of 5–10 nm in width and 100–200 nm in length. They contributed high BET surface area. The second particles were about 10,000–3000 nm in diameter, which were assemblies of ellipse crystals of 100–200 in width and 200–400 nm in length. The ellipse crystals consisted of sheet crystals. They connected with a certain angle and arranged their long direction parallel. - Graphical abstract: Acicular crystal assembled SnO2 particles and ellipse crystal assembled SnO2 particles were synthesized in the aqueous solutions. They showed high BET surface area of 276 m2/g. Highlights: ► Unique SnO2 nanocrystals were synthesized in an aqueous solution. ► They were acicular crystals and ellipse crystals. ► They had high BET surface area of 276 m2/g.