Synthesis of different copper nanostructures by the use of polyol technique

Abstract

Self-seeding polyol synthesis method, without additives, was employed for the fabrication of different copper nanostructures. The pertinent parameters including temperature, copper concentration and molar ratio of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) to copper were assessed for achieving different size and morphology of copper nanostructures, i.e., nanowire, nanosphere and nanocube. It was found that PVP-to-copper molar ratio has the most significant effect on the geometry of the copper nanostructures. Graphical Abstract1 Introduction

Nickel-Ion-Oriented Fabrication of Spiny PtCu Alloy Octahedral Nanoframes with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Performance

“…Because of the unstable Cu intermediate was easily oxidized under air condition, only the characteristic diffraction peak of CuO (JCPDS: 02−1040) was detected (Figure 3D). 44,55,56 The ICP-MS data (Figure 3E) also confirmed that Cu was indeed the prominent component of the solid octahedral templates (atomic ratio of Cu 93.5% and Pt 6.5%). As the reaction went on, hollow structures were gradually formed because of the replacement reaction between Cu templates and PtCl 6 2− in the aqueous.…”

“…In the presence of Ni 2+ , solid Cu octahedral templates with an average edge length about 40 nm were first formed in the initial stage because of the higher reduction rate of Cu 2+ than PtCl 6 2– , which was tuned by glycine (Figure A 1 and CA 1 ). ,, The formation of Cu intermediate was characterized by XRD analysis. Because of the unstable Cu intermediate was easily oxidized under air condition, only the characteristic diffraction peak of CuO (JCPDS: 02–1040) was detected (Figure D). ,, The ICP-MS data (Figure E) also confirmed that Cu was indeed the prominent component of the solid octahedral templates (atomic ratio of Cu 93.5% and Pt 6.5%). As the reaction went on, hollow structures were gradually formed because of the replacement reaction between Cu templates and PtCl 6 2– in the aqueous. ,, Additionally, the coreduction of PtCl 6 2– (H 2 PtCl 6 ) and Cu 2+ (dissolved from solid Cu octahedron) also occurred during the replacement reaction and the resulting Pt and Cu atoms selectively deposited on the apexes whose atoms were more active than other places, leading to the growth of spiny nanothorns (Figure A 2 –A 4 and CA 2 –CA 4 ). , The emerging PtCu alloy characteristic diffraction peaks and the disappearance of CuO characteristic diffraction peak in XRD results also proved the formation of Pt composition in those intermediates during the replacement reaction (Figure D).…”

The Roles of Hydrazine and Ethylenediamine in Wet Synthesis of Cu Nanowire

“…Many authors have studied different kinds methods to synthesize copper nanowires, including synthesis using template materials [1][2][3][4][5][6], solvothermal or hydrothermal [7,8], and wet synthesis [9][10][11][12][13]. Although the template technique produces a quite clean and straight copper nanowires, but the process requires cleaning the sacrificed materials which considered as a delicate and time-consuming process.…”

“…However, these are still used as powerful techniques to synthesize nanowire in the high crystalline ratio. The wet synthesis in producing copper nanowires had been explored by many authors using different capping agents and reductors [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Perhaps, the simplest and fastest in producing copper nanowire in wet synthesis is done using copper salt, N 2 H 4 (hydrazine) as a reductor, and an amine group as a capping agent such as done by Rathmell and his group [11][12].…”