Growth of hexagonal shape nanostructured Sb2O3 thin films by spray pyrolysis and their structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties

In recent past decades, various oxide’s thin films were synthesized successfully by chemical spray pyrolysis technique (CSPT), but little work has been dedicated to the synthesis of Sb2O3 thin films. In this investigation, we report the synthesis of nanostructured antimony trioxide (Sb2O3) thin films using the simple and low-cost CSPT. The deposited films were characterized in detailed by means of x-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDAX), UV–Visible absorption and transmission spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy. The electrical resistivity was measured using two-point probe method. The XRD analysis shows that the deposited films possess good crystalline nature, senarmonite cubic phase, with average crystallites size of 58.73 nm. FESEM–EDAX analysis revealed that nano-dimensional hexagonal cubic crystal morphology grown-up on the surface with excellent elemental composition of Sb2O3. The deposited Sb2O3 films exhibit semiconducting behaviour, with the calculated band gap, activation energy and resistivity were found to be the order of 3.43 eV, 0.764 eV and 26.16 × 102 Ω cm respectively. Raman spectra analysis verifies the homogeneity of the deposited material.