Direct existence to suggest activity of copper ions surface diffusion on nanowire in growth process

Abstract

As regards the copper oxide nanowire growth process, our experiment was consistent with the proposal of copper ions surface diffusion on a nanowire. Simply in the atmospheric pressure it is possible to synthesize CuO nanowires by annealing a copper sheet. Under a general copper oxide nanowires occurring condition, pouring the flow rate of a slight amount of air into an enclosed electric furnace in the atmospheric pressure, copper oxide nanowires adhering copper particles were synthesized on copper sheet successfully. In the growth process of the CuO wire, when the Cu substrate was heated in the air, stresses caused grain boundaries of Cu2O and CuO layers in the Cu substrate. Ultimately Cu ions formed a wire tip diffusing on the surface of a CuO wire in the vertical direction to the top surface of the CuO layer, while assembling to the tip. In this report, we describe characteristics of the structure of the CuO nanowire obtained by lowering the air flow rate.