Effect of Lithium Doping Concentration on the Structural, Morphological and Optical Properties of NiO Nanoparticles

NiO has a wide bandgap value ranging from 3.6 to 4.0 eV and exhibits low p-type conductivity. The structural and optical properties of NiO-based nanoparticles can be modified by doping with lithium (Li) for suitable applications in the field of photocatalysis and sensors. In this present work, sol-gel method is used to produce the pure NiO nanoparticles and Li doped NiO nanoparticles at two different concentrations 0.01 M and 0.09 M. All the samples exhibit cubic structure as confirmed from the JCPDS File No.: 89-5881. The absence of impurity peaks reveals that the pure and Li doped NiO nanoparticles exhibit high crystalline quality. From PXRD and FESEM, it is observed that crystallinity and average grain size of the NiO nanoparticles increases with increase in the Li doping concentration. PL studies show a blue shift for the pure and Li doped NiO nanoparticles.