Study of substrate temperature effects on structural, optical, mechanical and opto-thermal properties of NiO sprayed semiconductor thin films

•Original investigation on an updated solid material for electronic/electrochemical, and optical applications.•Gathering conjoint classical and scientific analyses.•Outlining adequacy and accuracy through comparison of synthesis, processing and characterization patterns. Crystalline nickel oxide (NiO) thin films were obtained by simple spray pyrolysis technique using nickel chloride hexahydrate solutions onto glass substrates at different temperatures of 350, 400 and 450°C. Structures of the as-deposited NiO thin films have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the surface topography was performed by the atomic force microscope (AFM). The results show that NiO films crystallize in cubic phase structure with a preferred orientation of the crystallites along (111) direction. Furthermore, a conjoint new and original set of opto-thermal and hydrophobic investigations has been carried out and discussed relatively to the classically investigated structural, optical, mechanical and thermal characteristics, in order to compare optimized geometrical and crystalline structures.