The Effect of Annealing and Nickel Concentrations on the Structural Properties of the Nickel-Doped Cupric Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

The effects of both annealing temperatures and nickel (Ni) concentrations of nickel doped cupric oxide (Ni– CuO) thin films were investigated in this work. Different doping concentrations of Ni (0, 20, 30, 50, 70, and 80%) were introduced to the CuO using the radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The resulting 60 nm films were then annealed for one hour to 200 °C and 400 °C under ambient conditions. The X-ray diffraction images revealed that annealing of Ni–CuO films changed their nature from an amorphous structure to a polycrystalline structure with a monoclinic phase. Increasing the Ni concentration increased the size of the crystallite while decreasing the dislocation density. Examining the surface morphology of films using field emission scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy showed a presence of nanoparticles grains covering the whole surfaces, with perimeters ranging between 135 nm and 215 nm. Increasing the annealing temperatures reduced surface roughness, while an increase of Ni concentration increased surface roughness.