Self-assembled SnO2 film with low density

A new kind of metallic oxide film consisted of nanodisks with porous structure has been prepared, which is different from that of targetlike multirings previously reported by our group. Herein, the SnO2 film has been prepared by using tin(IV) tert-butoxide as precursor, sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) as template and gelatin as stabilizer. Results show that the SnO2 film is usually composed of series nanodisks with the diameters ranging from 0.1μm to 1μm and each disk displays worm-like porous structure in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation. These SnO2 nanodisks are suggested to born inside the solution and gradually rise up to the air-water interface due to low density of the disk or disk cluster. After further treatment, the well ordered SnO2 thin film is considered to have a potential application in gas-sensing materials. Remarkably, this may be a distinctive method to get SnO2 film and may be widely applied to produce other metallic oxide films with low density.