Influence of deposition time and applied voltage on the properties of electrophoretically deposited nickel oxide colloidal nanoparticles thin film

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the present work, nickel oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesised, using the laser ablation technique in aqueous suspension. By applying the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method with direct current (DC), the nickel oxide NPs obtained have been deposited on an aluminium substrate. During the EPD process, different films have been produced by a variety of deposition times and applied voltages. The characterisation of the samples, including nickel oxide NPs suspension and nickel oxide deposited thin films, was carried out through different methods, such as X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV–Vis spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The crystalline structure of the samples inspected by XRD showed that nickel oxide existed in NPs suspension and all the thin films. The morphology of the deposited films and dried NPs has been obtained by SEM. By observing the SEM micrographs, it was shown that deposition time and applied voltage change the morphology of the deposited thin films. In addition, AFM results demonstrated that the electrophoretic parameters have an effect on the average particles size, thickness and roughness of the deposited films. The optical properties of the NPs and deposited films have been analysed by UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy.