Synthesis of Nickel-Doped TiO₂ Thin Films and Their Structural and Optical Properties at Different Annealing Temperatures

Abstract

Titanium oxide (TiO2) and nickel-doped TiO2 thin films were deposited onto glass substrates by reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique at different oxygen contents. Then, prepared films were annealed at temperatures of 300 and 500• C. Influence of O2/Ar ratio, nickel doping and annealing temperature on structural, morphological and optical properties of TiO2 thin films were studied and discussed. The XRD analysis results have confirmed the amorphous nature of the films. The results show that increase of annealing temperature and oxygen content in argon-oxygen gas mixture have lead to an increase of films transparency. By doping the TiO2 with nickel the optical band gap energy has slightly decreased. AFM analysis results have shown that the surface morphology of films is effectively influenced by annealing temperature.

Critical Role of the NiO–Ni(OH)2 Species Loaded Onto TiO2 Photocatalyst in the Enhancement of H2 Evolution Activity

“…Considering the heating temperature adopted for loading the Ni precursor, which is 300 °C, it is not impossible for Ni doping to take place at the TiO 2 surface, as was also observed in the earlier report. 34 The suggested doping scenario appears in agreement with the Raman spectroscopy data shown in Fig. 2B.…”

Effect of silver thickness on structural, optical and morphological properties of nanocrystalline Ag/NiO thin films

“…It is well known that the size, structure and morphology of the films are the essential parameters for those applications [17][18][19][20][21][22]. The physical properties of the metal oxide thin films could be modified by adding suitable doping materials like Li, Cu, Au and Ag [1,14,23]. Sta et al [14] investigated the hydrogen sensors prepared using nickel oxide (NiO) and lithium-doped nickel oxide (NiO:Li) thin films.…”