Biosurfactant mediated synthesis of NiO nanorods

Nickel Oxide (NiO) nanorods were synthesized using a solution based water-in-oil microemulsion technique, which uses biosurfactant dispersed in n-heptane hydrocarbon phase. The synthesized nickel hydroxide particles were found to have a flaky morphology at lower pH and changed to a mixture of flaky and spherical particles as the pH of the solution was increased. Calcination treatment of the nickel hydroxide particles gave rise to nanorods of NiO. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used for the phase identification. The morphology of the synthesized nickel hydroxide particles and NiO nanorods was evaluated using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis. The nanorods were found to be approximately 22 nm in diameter and 150–250 nm in length. This environment friendly approach for nanomaterial synthesis is simpler compared to other conventional methods.