Antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) nanopai-ticles were synthesized by the hydrothennal method from the starting materials granulated tin and SbI_3, the hydrothermal reaction took place at 120 ～ 170 ℃ for 20 h. The crystallining process and the particles were characterized by means of FT-IR, XRD, BET and TEM. XRD shows that all the diffraction patterns agree well with the bulk SnO_2 cassiterite structure. The crystallite sizes of the ATO particles were about 4～7 nm. The specific surface areas were about 137 ～ 182 m~2·g~(-1). With the increase of hydrothermal temperature the crystallite size increased, the specific surface area decreased and the conductivity increased. TEM shows that the nanoparticles are monodispersed. This method can be used to synthesize other transparent conductive oxides.

Key words: TIN OXIDE, DOPE, HYDRO-THERMAL REACTION, NANOPHASE MATERIALS, ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY, FT, IR, XRD, TEM, GRAIN