Sulfur-Mediated Synthesis of Spherical Nickel Nanoparticles in a Chemical Vapor Reactor.

In this study, we investigated the effect of the sulfur content in the NiCl 2 precursor on the shape of nickel nanoparticles (Ni-NPs) prepared by chemical vapor synthesis. We obtained spherical Ni-NPs when using anhydrous NiCl 2 mixed with NiSO 4 or Na 2 SO 4 with a molar ratio of 0.002 as precursors without changing any other process parameters whereas faceted Ni-NPs when using only anhydrous NiCl 2 as a precursor. First-principles calculations supported experimental results, which showed that NiSO 4 -mixed NiCl 2 and Na 2 SO 4 -mixed NiCl 2 precursors favored the growth of spherical NPs.