Effect of Annealing Temperatures on Morphological and Electrical Performances of Amorphous-Like Structured Tin Manganese Telluride Nanocomposite Films.

SnMnTe nanocomposite films were synthesized at various annealing temperatures within 240 min. The morphological properties of these films were investigated as a function of the annealing temperature, 50-400 °C. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed an amorphous structure of the films at all annealing temperatures tested above. However, a smooth surface was observed at the 200-400 °C due to the formation of small nanoparticles (NPs) in the film with the increasing annealing temperatures. The increase in the contact angle from 22-47° with the increased annealing temperature from 50-150 °C could be attributed to the altered properties of the surface of the film from hydrophilic to hydrophobic and elevated roughness. On the other hand, a decrease in the contact angle from 22-9° resulted from the increased the annealing temperature from 200-400 °C due to the low surface roughness and distribution of the porous matrix. Furthermore, the average sheet resistance at 100-300 °C was 4.58×10 Ω· cm with an average electrical conductivity of 73.07 S·m. Moreover, the construction of the energy band alignment of SnMnTe with a general electron acceptor showed the ability of electron injection due to the higher energy level of conduction band edge () for SnMnTe than that for the electron acceptors, thereby supporting its feasibility in lithium-ion batteries, electrochemical devices, and supercapacitors.