A facile route to sea urchin-like NiO architectures

Sea urchin-like NiO architectures were successfully synthesized by thermal decomposition of the as-prepared precursors deposited from NiCl2 center dot 6H(2)O aqueous solution with urea via hydrothermal route, without using any templates or surfactants. The precursors and ultimate products were characterized by XRD, FESEM, TEM and SAED. Results showed that the obtained samples were of high purity and the phase was polycrystalline cubic NiO; the NiO architectures composing numerous nanowires had a uniform diameter of about 1 mu m and the diameter of the nanowires on the architectures was in the range of 10-30 nm. The possible formation mechanism was discussed. The presented method is facile and inexpensive, so it may be suitable for bulk production. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.