Dendrite-like cupric oxide microstructures prepared via a facile SDBS-assisted hydrothermal route

Abstract

Novel dendrite-like CuO microstructures with size of about 1.3 µm have been prepared by a facile sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS)-assisted hydrothermal method. The CuO dendrite was constructed by a main branch and many sub-branched nanorods perpendicular to it. The as-obtained product was characterized by XRD, SEM, HRTEM, Raman, and XPS techniques, revealing that dendritic CuO architectures possessed single-crystal monoclinic structures. Controlled experiments found that the concentration of SDBS played important role for the formation of such novel dendrite-like morphology. The band gap of CuO dendrites was estimated to be 2.01 eV, which showed significant blue-shift compared with that of bulk.