Hierarchical Nickel nanowire synthesis using polysorbate 80 as capping agent

Nanomaterials find applications in multiple fields including food and beverages, waste water management, electrical and electronics due to their interesting properties. These properties can be fine-tuned using various synthesis techniques ranging from solid state route to different wet chemical techniques like precipitation, sol-gel, hydrothermal and solvothermal methods Here, we report a simple wet chemical synthesis of nickel nanoparticles using Tween 80 as the capping agent. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a hierarchical nanowire- like morphology with thorn like sharp edges while the presence of nickel in the sample was confirmed by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). X-ray diffraction studies ascertained the crystalline nature of nickel nanowires and also the purity of the as-synthesized nanowires. Transmission electron Microscopy (TEM) and Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED) analysis of the sample indicated the existence of a small quantity of nickel hydroxide. The magnetic property of the synthesized nickel samples studied using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) revealed a high saturation magnetization of ∼43 emug−1. Antibacterial activity studies confirmed that nickel nanowire exhibited an excellent bactericidal activity against both gram- positive and gram- negative bacteria which could be attributed to the morphology of the nickel nanowires.