Luminescent properties of vanadium-doped SnO2 nanoparticles

Abstract This paper reports the influence of doping degree and annealing temperature on XRD, Raman, EPR and PL spectra of Sn1−xVxO2 nanoparticles with x = 0, 0.01 and 0.05 annealed at 600 and 800 °C. XRD studies reveal a tetragonal rutile crystalline phases of tin oxide, while the formation of V2O5 secondary phase was evidenced for all doped nanoparticles only by Raman scattering. In function of the doping degree and annealing temperature, from EPR spectroscopy was evidenced the presence of three different positions for V4+ ions in the samples: isolated ions disposed on the nanoparticles surface, ions which are coupled by dipolar or exchange interactions and cluster ions. The luminescence emissions associated with oxygen vacancies and structural defects are influenced by doping degree and annealing temperature and could be correlated with the crystallite size determined from XRD patterns.