Solid State Process for Preparation of Nickel Oxide Nanoparticles: Characterization and Optical Study

In the present work, we report preparation of NiO nanoparticles with well-defined plate morphology by solid-state reaction of NiCl2∙6H2O and the Schiff base ligand N,N′-bis-(3- methoxysalicylidene)benzene-1,4-diamine), as a novel precursor via solid state thermal decomposition method. This method is a simple and environmentally friendly for preparing transition metal oxides. The result of TGA analysis of the precursor showed that the proper calcinations temperature is 450 °C. The NiO product was characterized by XRD, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy, SEM and TEM. The results indicated that the obtained product is face-centered cubic of nickel oxide, plate shape with average particle size of 10-20 nm. The optical absorption band gap of the nickel oxide nanoparticles was estimated to be 2.1 eV.