Facile Synthesis of Flowerlike Cu₂O Nanoarchitectures by a Solution Phase Route

Abstract

Novel flowerlike nanostructures consisting of Cu 2 O nanopetals were successfully synthesized by a facile wet chemical method for the first time. The synthesized products were systematically studied by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the nucleation and growth of the nanoflowers were governed by a nucleation-dissolution-recrystallization growth mechanism. It is noteworthy that the initially formed Cu 2 O nanoparticles without addition of NaOH were crucial to the growth of the final nanoarchitectures. A UV-vis spectrum was used to estimate the band gap energies of the nanoflowers. Further control experiments were also carried out to investigate the factors that impact the morphology and size of the products. It was demonstrated that the concentrations of NaOH and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) play key roles in the formation of the as-synthesized nanoflowers. By adjusting the concentration of NaOH and CTAB, temperature, and the quantity of water, Cu 2 O micrograss, nanorods, and pricky microrods can be synthesized accordingly. Our stepwise synthetic method may shed some light on the design of other well-defined complex nanostructures.

Up-scaling the synthesis of Cu2O submicron particles with controlled morphologies for solar H2 evolution from water

“…On the basis of our experimental data, a mechanism of Cu 2 O particle formation was hypothesized that is consistent with earlier reports [14,16,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. Addition of NH 2 OHÁHCl into the reaction system results in heterogeneous nucleation [51], yielding primary Cu 2 O nanoparticles due to the reduction of Cu(OH) 2 .…”

Fabrication of mesh-like bismuth oxide single crystalline nanoflakes and their visible light photocatalytic activity

“…Among them, n depends on the characteristics of the transition in a semiconductor and the value of n for Bi 2 O 3 was 1 [48]. The band gap energy (E g value) of Bi 2 O 3 could be estimated from a plot of (˛h ) 2 versus photo energy (h ) [49]. The extrapolated value (the straight lines to the X axis) of h at˛= 0 gave the absorption edge energy corresponding to E g = 2.85 eV, which is in visible light region.…”

Fabrication of nanowire-like cuprous oxide in aqueous solutions of a triblock copolymer

“…Yu et al [16] prepared Cu 2 O nano-whiskers with diameter of 15-30 nm and more than 200 nm in length through liquid deposition method at 25 • C by adding cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a soft template. Luo et al [17] prepared Cu 2 O nanoparticles by reducing Cu(CH 3 COOH) 2 ·H 2 O with NaBH 4 in a H 2 O/CTAB/DMF three-phase system in the absence of NaOH, and then obtained Cu 2 O nanoflowers through etching Cu 2 O nanoparticles with NaOH solution and being recrystallized with the help of CTAB.…”