Investigation of the effect of oxygen partial pressure on the phase composition of copper oxide nanoparticles by vacuum arc synthesis

Abstract

Copper oxide nanoparticles were obtained in the plasma of a low-pressure arc discharge. The effect of the partial pressure of oxygen (10-40%) on the physical properties of the deposited nanoparticles has been studied. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the cubic structure of Cu2O changes to monoclinic CuO with increasing O2 pressure. The results of Raman spectroscopy further confirmed the phase variations of copper-based oxide nanoparticles. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the change in the binding energy in the oxidation state of nanoparticles. The optical band gap of the deposited Cu2O is 2.12 eV, while that of CuO is 1.79-1.82 eV. Keywords: vacuum arc, oxides, nanoparticles, plasma-chemical reactions.