Morphological Evolution of Cu₂O Nanocrystals in an Acid Solution: Stability of Different Crystal Planes

Abstract

The morphological evolution of uniform Cu(2)O nanocrystals with different morphologies in a weak acetic acid solution (pH = 3.5) has been studied for cubic, octahedral, rhombic dodecahedral, {100} truncated octahedral, and {110} truncated octahedral nanocrystals. Cu(2)O nanocrystals undergo oxidative dissolution in weak acid solution, but their morphological changes depend on the exposed crystal planes. We found that the stability of Cu(2)O crystal planes in weak acid solution follows the order of {100} ≫ {111} > {110} and determines how the morphology of Cu(2)O nanocrystals evolves. The stable {100} crystal planes remain, and new {100} facets form at the expense of the less stable {111} and {110} crystal planes on the surface of Cu(2)O nanocrystals. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the Cu-O bond on Cu(2)O(100) surface has the shortest bond length. These results clearly exemplify that the morphology of inorganic crystals will evolve with the change of local chemical environment, shedding light on fundamentally understanding the morphological evolution of natural minerals and providing novel insights into the geomimetic synthesis of inorganic materials in the laboratory.

Shape-dependent interplay between oxygen vacancies and Ag–CeO2 interaction in Ag/CeO2 catalysts and their influence on the catalytic activity

“…Subsequently, it is being developed as a novel strategy to engineer efficient oxide-contained heterogeneous catalysts by controlling the shape of oxide nanocrystals [1]. This novel strategy has been exemplified by shape-dependent surface reactivity and catalysis of MgO [2], Co 3 O 4 [3,4], and Cu 2 O [5][6][7][8] nanocrystals. Ceria (CeO 2 ) exhibits a nice Redox property and a high oxygen storage capacity and thus has wide applications in many important catalytic oxidation reactions [9][10][11].…”

Plasmon-enhanced photocatalytic properties of nano Ag@AgBr on single-crystalline octahedral Cu2O (1 1 1) microcrystals composite photocatalyst

“…As shown in Fig. 1, the (1 1 1) diffraction peak in the XRD pattern of cubic Cu 2 O crystals exhibits a much stronger intensity over other diffraction peaks, indicating that cubic Cu 2 O crystals exclusively expose (1 1 1) planes [25]. However, the (1 1 1) diffraction peak intensity of Cu 2 O exhibits significantly lower after Cu 2 O combining with Ag@AgBr.…”

Synthesis And Characterization Of SiO2, SnO2 And TiO2 Metal Oxide Shells Covering Cu2O Particles

“…[3,11] Cu 2 O (12 mg) nanoparticles were re-dispersed in a mixed solution of ethanol (9 mL) and DI water (12 mL) by ultrasonication for 5 min. CTAB (15 mg) was added in the mixture solution.…”