Hydrothermal Synthesis of Cuprous Oxide Nanoflowers and Characterization of Their Optical Properties

Abstract

In this study, the facile, one-step synthesis of cuprous oxidenanostructures via hydrothermal reaction is reported. Nanoflower-like cuprousoxides with average sizes of ~230 nm are synthesized by using copper (Cu) acetatemonohydrate as the Cu source, glucose as the reducing agent andpolyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as the surfactant in basic aqueous solutions at 140oCfor 6 h. The effects of the NaOH content on the morphology of synthesizedstructures are also investigated, where hexapods were synthesized when no NaOHused and submicron sized octahedra were obtained with increased NaOH amount.The optical properties of the synthesized structures are studied by usingphotoluminescence (PL) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. PL spectra revealed thepresence of different band edge emissions located at similar wavelengths for allthe three samples, where the intensity of the emissions varied from sample tosample. An absorbance peak located at ~355 nm and a direct bandgap value ofabout Eg = 2.16 eV are measured via UV-Vis spectroscopy of the nanoflower-likecuprous oxides.