Vertically aligned and well interconnected NiO nanowalls with thin nanodiscs of cubic NiO as the in situ formed building blocks were fabricated via a template-free approach. The alkaline solution of ammonium hydroxide was used as a reductant and Ni foil as both source material and substrate for the nanowall synthesis. Surface morphology analysis confirmed the formation of 15 nm thick and 0.2-1.5 μm wide nanowalls. The nanowalls had the crystal structure of cubic NiO with their growth plane along the [111] direction. An optical band gap of about 3.8 eV for the NiO nanowalls was obtained from the optical absorption measurement. NiO nanowalls exhibited a broad UV emission band centered at around 390 nm. This simple, but efficient synthesis technique can facilitate the growth of well aligned 2D nanostructures with large surface area for possible applications in nanoscale devices.

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