The template-assisted wet-combustion synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles on mesoporous network of alumina nanofibers

A novel wet-combustion method is developed to functionalize mesoporous network of alumina nano fibers. The wet-combustion method includes coating the nanofibers with the solution of the precursors of dopants mixed with fuels, followed by dissociation/oxidation of the precursors in a combustion mode. Due to the high temperature of the flame and short duration of the combustion process, this approach possesses such unique feature as control over the size, morphology and homogeneity of the deposited nanostructures as well as ability to avoid additional procedures of calcination. In this study, urea and glycine as the basic fuels and copper nitrate as the precursor of copper and oxidant as well as mesoporous network of alumina nanofibers (with single fiber diameter of 7 +/- 2 nm) as the template are used. As a result, a mesoporous network of highly oriented copper oxide alumina composite nanofibers are produced. It is shown that the fuel type and the ratio of fuel-to-oxidizer do not evidently influence on the chemical composition of the product, while the morphology of the deposited copper oxide is controlled by the initial composition of reagents. The average crystallite size of the deposited CuO is 16 and 19 nm for the systems containing stoichiometric amount of glycine and urea, respectively. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.