Soft Chemistry Synthesis of SnO Nanostructures

SnO nanostructures were synthesized following a soft chemistry route based on hydrolysis [2 (link),8 (link)], carried out at room conditions, in contraposition with previous studies where Ar atmospheres were used [3 (link)]. Initially, the selected precursor SnCl₂·2H₂O (Sigma-Aldrich purity 99.99%, Darmstadt, Germany) was dissolved in water with continuous stirring at low temperature. Next, NH₄OH (Sigma-Aldrich, Darmstadt, Germany) was added until pH = 8 was reached and hydrolysis occurred. Then, the temperature was raised to 100 °C for 2 h. The final product was centrifuged and washed several times until obtaining neutral pH; finally, it was dried at 50 °C for 12 h. The product was stored in glass vessels.