Title: A green and an environmentally benign route to prepare Cu2O nanocrystals and their potential applications

Authors: M.A. Shah, F.M. Al-Nowaiser

Addresses: Department of Physics, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah 21589, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ' Department of Chemistry, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah 21589, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract: A new and versatile technique have been successfully developed for the synthesis of Cu2O nanocrystals without using any additives and/or amines. The technique is based on a simple reaction between copper powder and distilled water at very low temperature. There are other different existing approaches which were applied for the synthesis of copper oxide nanostructures, but most of the methods involve environmentally malignant chemicals and organic solvents which are toxic and not easily degraded in the environment. This synthetic technique has the following advantages: Firstly, it is one step synthesis approach, making it easy to control the growth kinetics. Secondly, the synthesis needs no sophisticated equipments since it is conducted at low temperature of 220°C. Thirdly, the approach is non toxic without producing hazardous waste as water is being used as solvent as well as source of oxygen. The approach can be scaled up.

Keywords: copper oxide; distilled water; synthesis; nanoparticles; XRD; Cu2O nanocrystals; nanotechnology; additives; amines; non-toxic synthesis; green technology; environmentally-friendly technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNP.2011.038249

International Journal of Nanoparticles, 2011 Vol.4 No.1, pp.27 - 32

Published online: 13 Mar 2015 *

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