Structure study of nickel nanoparticles

Nickel nanoparticles with various grain sizes were prepared by spontaneous autocatalytic reduction in an alcohol-water solution at room temperature, characterized by a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Data analysis of crystallography parameters indicates that the lattice constant increases and cell volume expands as the average grain size decreases. This can be explained by the lattice distortion and surface oxidation of the Ni nanoparticles. A depth of the oxide layer is about 3.5-4.3 Angstrom. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.