Synthesis and characterization of Indium Oxide nanoparticles using indium nitrate and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as precursors

Abstract

This paper reports the synthesis and characterization of In2O3 nanoparticles by a simple polymer complex method using indium (III) nitrate and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as the starting chemicals. The precursors were calcined at different temperatures to obtain In2O3 nanoparticles. The XRD and electron diffraction analysis results indicated that the In2O3 samples had a cubic structure without any impurity phases.The FT-IR analysis result confirmed the formation of In2O3. TEM revealed that the In2O3 samples consist of crystalline particle of 14.6– 24.6 nm which are weakly agglomerated. UV-vis spectroscopy was also performed to study the optical properties of synthesized In2O3 samples. The estimated band gap of the samples was 3.70-3.93 eV.