Fabrication and characterization of NiO nanorods grown by RF sputtering: Optical and hydrophylicity studies

In this research, first by using RF sputtering method, nickel thin films were deposited on the glass lame substrate and then they annealed at different temperatures in pure oxygen environment. Images of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that nanorod shape structure are formed with average diameter of about 35 nm. The annealed films have had band gap energy in the range 3.77-3.87 eV by using optical measurements. In addition, water contact angle of about 110° was measured before annealing and it changed from hydrophobicity to hydrophylicity state in different temperatures. Images of atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that RMS surface roughness of these specimen annealed at 〖500〗^oC is about 9 nm.