Synthesis of nickel and nickel oxide nanoparticles via heat-treatment of simple octanoate precursor

Nickel oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized via heat-treatment of a new precursor nickel octanoate Ni(octa)(2); (octa = octanoate): in the range of 400-900 degrees C. The effect of calcination temperature on particle size has been investigated. When the calcinations were conducted in air from 400 to 900 degrees C, the precursor Ni(octa)(2) was first changed to Ni, then to NiO. When calcined in argon atmosphere. Ni(octa)(2) was directly converted into pure Ni at as low as 500 degrees C. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The synthesized NiO nanoparticles have quasi-spherical particles with size of about 24 nm. The optical absorption band gap of NiO nanoparticles is 3.41 eV. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.