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 (NiCl2·6H2O) 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 °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 Å). 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 180Oe (25 mol/L).