Structural characterization of nickel oxide/hydroxide nanosheets produced by CBD technique

Abstract Nickel hydroxide samples were deposited onto glass substrates using Ni(NO 3 ) 2 ·6H 2 O and aqueous ammonia by chemical bath deposition technique. The influence of pH of solution was investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared, Raman spectroscopy, optical absorption and BET analysis. The as-deposited samples were identified as β-Ni(OH) 2 , were transformed into NiO after heat treatment in air at 500 °C for 2 h. Porous nickel oxide nanosheets are obtained by heating nickel hydroxide nanosheets. The optical transitions observed in the absorbance spectra below optical band gap is due to defects or Ni 2+ vacancies in NiO samples. The band gap energy of NiO samples changes between 3.37 and 3.52 eV depending on the pH values.