Impact of annealing temperature on the structural, morphological and optical properties of Ni doped ZnO nanostructured thin films synthesized by sol–gel methodology

Abstract

Nickel doped zinc oxide (NZO) nanostructured thin films were prepared by hydrolysis and poly condensation reaction based on the sol–gel methodology. Nanostructured thin films were prepared over the glass substrate by dip coating. Prepared samples were annealed at 350 °C and 450 °C respectively to tune the desired characteristics. The XRD studies endorses the prepared films were polycrystalline in nature and high intensity sharp peaks were exhibited in (101) direction. EDAX results confirms the presence of Ni, Zn and O elements. FESEM results exhibits the spherical like morphology throughout the sample. The typical grain size of prepared samples are vary from 35 nm to 105 nm. Results of the FTIR divulges the different composition of prepared NZO samples. UV–vis spectrophotometer results reveals that the fabricated 1 at.% NZO thin films annealed at 450 °C were guaranteed to have the lowest absorbance of less than 10 %, while the 0.5 at.% NZO thin films have an energy band gap of roughly 3.08 eV. The obtained results of the prepared films are useful for devices like solar cells, optoelectronic devices, flat panel displays, anticorrosion and surface protection applicant against stainless steel etc.