Microemulsion-mediated synthesis and characterization of monodispersed nickel molybdate nanocrystals

The present work reports the preparation of nickel molybdate nanocrystals via a microemulsion method. The microemulsion system included cationic surfactant CTAB, 1-butanol as co-surfactant, isooctane as oil phase, and aqueous solutions of nickel chloride and sodium molybdate. The produced water pools in the microemulsion system act as nanoreactors for reaction of nickel and molybdate ions to produce nickel molybdate nanomaterial. After calcination, the structure and morphology of the product were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) and UV–vis spectroscopies, X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). The synthesized α-NiMoO4 nanocrystals have a monoclinic structure with lengths of 140–150 nm and widths of 60–70 nm.