Mechanical milling: An alternative approach for enhancing the conductivity of SnF <inf>2</inf>

SnF 2 of various crystallite sizes have been obtained by mechanical milling. Further, the crystallite size dependent conduction characteristics of SnF 2 have been investigated by X-Ray Diffraction, High Resolution Scanning Electron Microscopy and Impedance Spectroscopy techniques. The crystallite size and microstrain developed during the milling process have been calculated by using Scherrer's semi-empirical formula. Further, an attempt is made to correlate the conductivity results of mechanically milled samples with the crystallite size and microstrain. In all cases, the temperature dependent conductivity plot obeys the Arrhenius behavior. The enhancement in conductivity of SnF 2 is found to be of two orders of magnitude after simply milling for 10 h. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.