Synthesis And Characterization Of Copper-based Nanostructures Through Solvothermal Method

Copper-based materials, including Cu, Cu2O, CuO and various complexes. In recent years, copper-based nanomaterials have become one of the hottest topics in materials science due to their special properties and potential applications in catalysis, semiconductor equipment, solar/photovoltaic energy conversion, gas sensing and an-timicrobial materials. As we all know, the properties of nanomaterials are highly de-pendent on their morphology and size, so people have paid great attention to the preparation of nanomaterials with controlled morphology and size.In this thesis, we successfully synthesized several copper-based nanostructures with novel morphologies in organic solvent system under solvothermal conditions. Furthermore, we also studied the possible formation mechanism and their properties and explored the relationship between the properties and morphology of the materials. The major contents are as follows:1. Controlled fabrication and property studies of comb-like cuprous oxide nanostructures. Novel comb-like cuprous oxide nanorod-based structures were syn-thesized through an interface etching method with salicylaldehyde as ligand and re-ducing agent in a water-toluene system. The special arrangement of the material has promise for great application potentials as ethanol sensors.2. Controlled fabrication and mechanism studies of necklace-like cop-per-based nanocomposites. In water-toluene system, using salicylaldehyde as ligand and reducing agent, necklace-like copper-based nanocomposites have been synthe-sized with the addition of formaldehyde. The addition of formaldehyde might destroy the coordination between Cu2+and salicylaldehyde and enhance the reducibility of the system. The necklace-like structures are composed of blocky copper nanoparticle wrapped by linear materials. We also proposed a possible formation mechanism of the product based on a series of experiments.3. Synthesis of copper-based nanomaterial through dual solvothermal reac-tion. Copper-based nanomaterials with different morphologies have been obtained through using different reductants in dual-solvothermal system. Copper or cuprous oxide can be fabricated by using different reductants. The morphology of the product can be controlled by adjusting the used solvents.