SCANNING AND TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY INVESTIGATION OF MULTIWALL CARBON NANOTUBE/NICKEL OXIDE NANOCOMPOSITE THIN FILMS

摘要

Owing to their unique electronic and optical properties nanocomposite thin films are widely used for converting solar radiation energy into other conventional energy forms, such as heat and electricity. Carbon nanotube-based composites which can be created by mixing relatively small quantities of CNTs with metal oxide (matrix) have been recently used as selective solar absorbers for photo-thermal conversion in a solar collector. In this study, multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)/Nickel oxide (NiO) nanocomposites were prepared for the first time by a sol-gel process and coated on to aluminium substrate. The MWCNTs were chemically functionalized and then added into NiO alcogels which is followed by magnetic stirring in order to homogeneously disperse in the NiO matrix solution. The surface morphology and detailed microstructure of the thin films was investigated using a ZEISS ULTRA plus FEG-SEM and aJEOL-2100 TEM, respectively.