NiO-silica based materials have been synthesized by microemulsion assisted sol-gel procedure. The versatility of these soft nanotechnology techniques has been exploited in order to obtain different types of nanostructures, such as NiO nanoparticles, NiO silica coated nanoparticles and NO embedded in silica matrix. These materials have been characterized by adequate structural and morphology techniques: DLS, HR-TEM/SAED, BET, AFM. Optical and semiconducting properties (band-gap values) of the synthesized materials have been quantified by means of VIS-NIR diffuse reflectance spectra, thus demonstrating their applicative potential in various electron transfer phenomena such as photocatalysis, electrochromic thin films, solid oxide fuel cells. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.