Structural and Thermal properties of Cu doped Nanocrystalline Tin Selenide

摘要

Nanocrystalline Copper doped Tin Selenide have been prepared by aqueous solution method in double distilled water at room temperature. All the chemicals used for this were of Analytical Reagent grade and of 99.999% purity. Structural confirmation of prepared compound and particle size estimation was done from X-ray diffractogram obtained by CuK_α radiation of wavelength 1.540 nm. Compositional or elemental analysis of this compound was done using energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) and it is found that prepared compound is nearly stoichiometric in nature. Thermal characteristics of SnSeCu nanocrystals were studied employing thermoanalytical techniques, viz. TGA and DTA. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) has been used for many years to evaluate thermal stability of material as it will determine the range of stable operation for a device made up out of these materials under investigation. Thermal analysis experiments were carried out with constant heating rate of 10°C/min in air from room temperature to 900°C. The DTA pattern of SnSeCu nanocrystal shows a strong endothermic peak at 450°C. The objective of this study is to determine activation energy and other kinetic parameters of prepared compound. Broido and Coats-Redfern (C-R) models are used to evaluate different kinetic parameters viz. activation energy, entropy, enthalpy, Gibbs mean free energy and they were found to have good correlation coefficient.