NANOCRYSTALLINE NiO THIN FILMS PREPARED BY A LOW COST SIMPLIFIED SPRAY TECHNIQUE USING PERFUME ATOMIZER

Nickel oxide thin films have been prepared with different molarities of nickel chloride onto ultrasonically cleaned glass substrates kept at 350ºC by a simplified, economical spray technique using perfume atomizer. In this technique atomization is based on hydraulic pressure instead of compressor air pressure as in the conventional spray technique. The X-ray diffraction study reveals that the films are polycrystalline in nature with cubic structure. Micro structural parameters were calculated from the XRD data. Analysis of the absorption versus photon energy curves revealed an indirect transition and the band gap decreases with the increase in solution concentration. Electrical resistivity measurements showed that the magnitude of temperature coefficient of resistance for the films coated with 0.2 M was very low (-1.34 x 10-3 / K). All the above mentioned properties obtained by this simplified technique were found to be fairly comparable with that of their conventional spray counterparts