Microstructure, morphology and magnetic properties of Ni nanoparticles synthesized by hydrothermal method

Powder samples containing high purity nickel nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by hydrothermal method from Ni(II) chloride hexahydrate (NiCl2-6H(2)O) under the presence of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) with different concentrations between 5 and 25 mol/L. The synthesis of the NPs occurs through chemical reduction at relatively low temperature (140 degrees C). The Ni NPs have a face-centred cubic (fcc) crystal structure with a lattice parameter value close to that of pure Ni (a = 3.52 angstrom). The average crystallite size determined from x-ray diffraction is around 20 nm, except for the sample synthesized under the highest NaOH concentration (25 mol/L), which has the largest average size (>30 nm). The powder morphology at the sub-micrometre length scale looks like agglomerates of Ni-NPs that drastically changes their shape depending on the NaOH concentration, from flower (5 mol/L) to a dendritic-like (25 mol/L). All the samples are ferromagnetic at room temperature with saturation magnetization values between 50 and 52emu/g, and a coercive field that increases with the NaOH concentration from around 135 (5 mol/L) up to 1800e (25 mol/L). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.