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

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • 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. - Abstract: 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 (1 1 1) 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