Self-assembled isolated monodisperse NiO1+gamma nanoparticles as catalytic templates for nanomaterials synthesis

We present the self-organization of isolated monodisperse nickel oxide (NiO1+gamma) nanoparticles on surfaces of arbitrary area sizes. Ni films deposited on titanium oxynitride support films are annealed in a nitrogen/air environment at atmospheric pressure for various annealing times. After the annealing treatments, randomly distributed spatially isolated NiO1+gamma, nanoparticles that are anchored to the support film are observed with a site-density of 11 +/- 1 mu m(-2) and with dimensions of 16 +/- 2 nm in height and 82 +/- 10 nm in diameter. The anchored nanoparticles, once formed, are immobile during further annealing, even for annealing times of 40 min or annealing temperatures of 800 degrees C, making the nanoparticle formation a well-controlled process that yields templates suitable for further processing at elevated temperatures. We demonstrate the utilization of these NiO1+gamma nanoparticle templates as nucleation sites for carbon nanotubes at temperatures of around 680 degrees C.