Copper(II) oxalate nanospheres and its usage in preparation of Cu(OH)2, Cu2O and CuO nanostructures: Synthesis and growth mechanism

We present a series of simple methods for synthesis of some copper compound nanostructures. Copper(II) oxalate (CuC2O4 center dot H2O) nanostructures have been synthesized by solvothermal method without any surfactant, which was transformed into porous dandelion-like Cu(OH)(2) nanostructures by a solution reaction in air. Therefore, the synthesized CuC2O4 center dot H2O was used as precursor for preparation of Cu(OH)(2), Cu2O and CuO with different morphologies depending on the reaction conditions and the nature of precursor molecules. Systematic experiments were carried out to investigate the factors which impact on the morphology and size of the products. An effective and facile method for the controlled synthesis of octahedral Cu2O was presented by use of dandelion-like Cu(OH)(2) nanostructures. In this study, three routes were compared to fabricate CuO particles, rice-like and dandelion-like nanostructures by varying the reaction method and precursor. A mechanism for the growth of copper compound nanostructures has been described. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.