Structural and optical properties of NiO-ZnO nanocomposite thin film prepared by spray pyrolysis

NiO-ZnO nanocomposite thin film was prepared via spray pyrolysis method at a temperature of 350 °C and concentration of 0.1M on glass substrate. Structural and optical propertis of the nanocomposite thin film have compared with the properties of both NiO and ZnO Thin films. XRD results reveals that the nanocomposite thin films are polycrystalline with ZnO hexagonal wurtzite and NiO cubic structures and no secondary phases observed. The grain size for the nanocomposite thin film as determined by SEM show a smaller grain in comparison with the grains of the pure ZnO thin films, which suggest that the nickel oxide act as grain growth inhibitor. It was also found that the highest value of the energy gap was (3.6 eV) for the NiO-ZnO films and decreased for pure ZnO and NiO thin films.