Square Tin Oxide Nanotubes with Resilient 2D Surface Electron Gas

Published on 15 June 2023

An article on “The Growth, Structure, and Resilient Two-Dimensional Surface Electron Gas of Square SnO₂ Nanotubes” has been published in the Wiley Journal, Small.

Nanotechnology has delivered an amazing range of new materials such as nanowires, tubes, ribbons, belts, cages, flowers, and sheets. However, these are usually circular, cylindrical, or hexagonal in nature, while nanostructures with square geometries are comparatively rare. Here, a highly scalable method is reported for producing vertically aligned tin oxide nanotubes with perfectly-square geometries using mist chemical vapor deposition. Synchrotron x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals the presence of a particularly high density and thermally resilient 2D surface electron gas.

Tim Veal from the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy and Condensed Matter Physics solved the Poisson equation to determine the charge density profile and band bending from the photoemission and transport results. The persistent high surface electron density and high surface area of the tin oxide nanotubes have potential applications in gas sensing and catalysis. This work was a collaboration with University of Canterbury, New Zealand and was supported by the Marsden Fund Council managed by Royal Society Te Aparangi.