The Synthesis of NiO/TiO2 Heterostructures and Their Valence Band Offset Determination

In this work, a heterojunction based on p-type NiO/n-type TiO2 nanostructures has been prepared on the fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate by hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction techniques were used for the morphological and crystalline arrays characterization. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was employed to determine the valence-band offset (VBO) of the NiO/TiO2 heterojunction prepared on FTO glass substrate. The core levels of Ni 2p and Ti 2p were utilized to align the valence-band offset of p-type NiO/n-type TiO2 heterojunction. The valence band offset was found to be similar to 0.41 eV and the conduction band was calculated about similar to 0.91 eV. The ratio of conduction band offset and the valence-band offset was found to be 2.21.