Surfactant-Free Production of Ni-Based Nanostructures

This paper introduces a facile surfactant-free method for fabrication of different types of Ni-based nanostructures including metallic nickel nanoparticles (MNNP), nickel oxide nanoparticles (NONP) and chip-like nickel oxide nanoflakes (CNONF) by solvothermal technique at 190°C. Nickel acetyl acetonate (Ni(ac ac)₂) was used as nickel precursor for both MNNP and CNONF and NiCO₃●2Ni(OH)₂●nH₂O was utilized for NONP. Organic alcohols including 1-hexanol and benzyl alcohol were used as solvent to produce all powders. The crystallite sizes of MNNP, NONP and CNONF were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) to be 30, 9 and 27 nm, respectively. Electron microscopy indicated final particle sizes of 80 nm and 20 nm for MNNP and NONP, respectively and a thickness-layer less than 90 nm for CNONF. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) experiment determined a high surface area of 68 m²/gr for CNONF