@Article{CL.2023.205.377,
AUTHOR = {A. Gahtar, C. Zaouche, A. Ammari, L. Dahbi},
TITLE = {Growth and characterization of bimetallic (Ni,Co) sulfide thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis},
JOURNAL = {Chalcogenide Letters},
VOLUME = {20},
YEAR = {2023},
NUMBER = {5},
PAGES = {377--385},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/CL/v20n5/65289},
ISSN = {1584-8663},
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 (C<sub>4</sub>H<sub>6</sub>O<sub>4</sub>Ni. 4H<sub>2</sub>O), cobalt chloride (CoCl<sub>2</sub>. 6H<sub>2</sub>O), and thiourea 
(CS(NH<sub>2</sub>)<sub>2</sub>) 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 NiCo<sub>2</sub>S<sub>4</sub> 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 ≈ 10<sup>4</sup>
 
- 10<sup>5</sup>
 cm<sup>-1</sup>
). 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 1.42×10<sup>5</sup>
 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. },
DOI = {10.15251/CL.2023.205.377}
}