Optical Absorption Characterizations of Porous Al_2O_3Host/NiO Nanocomposites

Porous Al2O3 host/NiO nanocomposites have been prepared by pyrolysis of Ni2(OH)2CO3 inthe nanostructured Al2O3 hosts. Diffuse reflection spectra in the wavelength range of 200 to800 nm were measured. Results show that (1) in each spectrum exist several absorption bandsof nano-NiO. With increasing the pyrolysis temperature from 550 to 1000℃, the numbers ofabsorption bands of NiO increase from 2 to 6 (P1-P6), (2) comparing with optical absorptionbands of single crystal NiO, for porous nanocomposites the P1, P2 and P4 present "blue shift"and the P3, P5 and P6 exhibit "red shift"; (3) when the pyrolysis temperature, Tp, is 550℃, theabsorption bands become so weak that only two bands (P1 and P6) can be observed and inverselywhen Tp=1000℃ all six absorption bands of NiO are strong, (4) for porous Al2O3/NiOnanocomposites prepared by pyrolysis at 1000℃ the PF+ caused by the F+ centers in theAl2O3 host moves towards the short wavelength at first with increasing the doping amount ofNiO from 5 to 50 wt pct and then shifts to the long wavelength with further increasing NiO. Inthis paper, the above phenomena and mechanism of the absorption bands of NiO are discussedin detail.