The influence of different complexing agents on the properties of tin dioxide (SnO2) deposited thin films through chemical bath approach

The present study explores the effect of disodium ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid and triethanolamine as alternative complexing agents to synthesize SnO2 thin films by employing simplistic chemical bath deposition method. The as-deposited tin dioxide thin films have been characterized by various analytical techniques particularly X-rays diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX), and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD and Raman spectroscopy reveal the crystalline nature pertaining small crystal grains of the as-deposited SnO2 thin films with a tetragonal rutile structure. The SEM analysis unfolds that as-synthesized thin films using disodium ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid and triethanolamine, the grains of the films exhibit different shapes. The bandgap energies of the films have been estimated from the absorbance spectra through Tauc plot and the respective optical band gap of SnO2-EDTA and SnO2 -TEA exhibits the values as ∼4.2 eV and ∼3.8 eV, respectively. These findings suggest as-deposited tin dioxide thin films to be pertinent for use in solar radiation absorption applications.