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ARTICLE

Growth and characterization of bimetallic (Ni,Co) sulfide thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis

A. Gahtar^a,*, C. Zaouche^b, A. Ammari^c,d, L. Dahbi^e

a Nature and Life Sciences Faculty, University of Echahid Hamma Lakhdar, Eloued,39000, Algeria
b Material Sciences Department, Faculty of Science, University of Biskra, 07000 Biskra, Algeria
c Department of Physics, Faculty of Matter Sciences, Ibn-Khaldoun University, Tiaret, Algeria
d Laboratory of Micro and Nanophysics, National Polytechnic School of Oran (ENPO), Algeria
e Teacher College of Setif, Algeria

* Corresponding Author:

Chalcogenide Letters 2023, 20(5), 377-385. https://doi.org/10.15251/CL.2023.205.377

Received 08 March 2023; Accepted 22 May 2023;

Abstract

In this work, the bimetallic (Ni,Co) sulfide film of 852.213 nm thickness was successfully deposited using the spray pyrolysis technique at 300 °C. The compound was prepared with a mixture of nickel acetate (C₄H₆O₄Ni. 4H₂O), cobalt chloride (CoCl₂. 6H₂O), and thiourea (CS(NH₂)₂) as precursors for Ni, Co, and S, respectively. The temperature and sedimentation time were 300 °C and 10 min, respectively; the film was then, characterized without any thermal post-treatment. The structural, morphological, optical and electrical analysis were carried out to investigate the different properties of the material. The X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the presence of NiCo₂S₄ according to the JCPDS Card # 98- 004-0019, with an average crystallite size of 34.45 nm. The optical analysis revealed the metallic behavior of the film with an average transmittance of 3.41% in the visible region and a direct optical band gap of 2.15 eV, as well as a high absorption coefficient of α ≈ 10⁴ - 10⁵ cm^-1 ). The elementary composition analysis (EDS) confirmed the presence of Ni, Co and S elements in the film. Morphological analysis revealed a homogeneous, compact, crack-free appearance and a granular surface in all studied areas. On the other hand, the film shows a high electrical conductivity of about 1.42×10⁵ S/cm at room temperature. The obtained results show that the bimetallic (Ni, Co) sulfide prepared in this study exhibits a good crystallinity, dense morphology, good stoichiometric ratio and high conductivity. Therefore, it is a potential candidate for application in supercapacitors as electrode material.

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