Copper Oxide Nanomaterials Prepared by Solution Methods, Some Properties, and Potential Applications: A Brief Review

Abstract

Cupric oxide (CuO), having a narrow bandgap of 1.2 eV and a variety of chemophysical properties, is recently attractive in many fields such as energy conversion, optoelectronic devices, and catalyst. Compared with bulk material, the advanced properties of CuO nanostructures have been demonstrated; however, the fact that these materials cannot yet be produced in large scale is an obstacle to realize the potential applications of this material. In this respect, chemical methods seem to be efficient synthesis processes which yield not only large quantities but also high quality and advanced material properties. In this paper, the effect of some general factors on the morphology and properties of CuO nanomaterials prepared by solution methods will be overviewed. In terms of advanced nanostructure synthesis, microwave method in which copper hydroxide nanostructures are produced in the precursor solution and sequentially transformed by microwave into CuO may be considered as a promising method to explore in the near future. This method produces not only large quantities of nanoproducts in a short reaction time of several minutes, but also high quality materials with advanced properties. A brief review on some unique properties and applications of CuO nanostructures will be also presented.

Design of Sol-Gel Copper Oxide Based Coating for Solar Energy Applications

“…At higher magnification area a as shown in Figure 6 to the right, there exists well defined loosely packed spherical arrays. Same structure was observed in [26] and [27] where they defined this structure as a function of the increase of the PEG content as a surfactant. It has a great role in obtaining a smooth surface with an increased sphericity in the existing particles.…”

“…Tran et. al in [26] related the presence of agglomerated clusters to the presence of water added to the alcohol as a solvent. According to their theory, the water viscosity is higher than that of the alcohol.…”

CuO Rapid Synthesis with Different Morphologies by the Microwave Hydrothermal Method

“…This oxide is a p-type multifunctional semiconductor, which has narrow band gap values (1.2 -1.5 eV) [2][3][4] . Its monoclinic structure presents interesting characteristics, such as, thermal superconductivity, thermal stability 5 , photovoltaic properties and antimicrobial activity 6 . This metal oxide has been extensively investigated in recent years due to several applications such as an electric superconductor 7 , battery electrodes for lithium-ion cell 8 , solar sensors 9 , gas sensors 10 , catalysts 11 and wastewater treatments 12 .…”

Effect of Zn Doping in CuO Octahedral Crystals towards Structural, Optical, and Gas Sensing Properties

“…Similarly, Wang et al [8] reported reducing volatile organic sensing via sol-gel-synthesized CuO nanoparticles. It has been synthesized using numerous techniques such as hydrothermal, physical vapor deposition, sputtering, chemical vapor deposition, and co-precipitation methods [4,6,11]. Among these, the co-precipitation method using the water bath technique, in particular, has the benefit of low-temperature growth, low cost, and a simple process [12].…”