Preparation of fine nickel powders in aqueous solution under wet chemical process

Ultrafine nickel powders have been prepared by chemical reduction of aqueous NiCl2 with hydrazine at various reaction conditions as wet chemical process. The reductive atmosphere was produced by the dissolution of hydrazine hydrate in basic solution. The nickel powders were characterized by the means of an X-ray diffractometry, a scanning electron microscopy, BET method, a thermo-gravimetry and an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In this investigation, the average particle size of the nickel powders decreased by increasing the Ni2+ concentration, and also decreased without agglomeration by the introduction of the surfactant and the 1-propanol containing solvent. It was found that the nickel powders prepared at 60 °C for 45 min using various 1-propanol/water solvents while fixing the molar ratio of N2H4 to Ni2+ at 2.0, Ni2+ concentration at 0.8 M, and Na-CMC at 4.0 g/L were spherical in shape, ranged from 0.27 to 0.85 μm in size, and not agglomerated.