High‐performance gas‐sensing properties of octahedral NiO crystals prepared via one‐step controllable synthesis route

Abstract

Octahedrally shaped NiO powders have been synthesized via a one‐step composite‐hydroxide‐mediated method without any surfactant. The synthesized materials are characterized by XRD, EDS, TEM and FESEM techniques. Each particle exhibited a nearly perfect octahedron shape with sharp edges and corners as well as smooth surfaces. The octahedral NiO particles performed better gas‐sensitivity toward ethanol than that of NiO nanopowders, which was attributed to the exposed ｛111｝ facets of octahedron. The result was confirmed by the first‐principle calculation which indicated that the (111) facet was more active than (100) and (110) facet.