Growth of Dendritic Copper Nanocrystals in Alkaline Solution

Abstract

Cu dendritic nanostructure crystals have been synthesized from CuCl2⋅2H2O in an alkaline aqueous solution at temperature of 200 °C. The morphology and size can be tunable by changing the reaction temperature and time. It can be seen from the SEM images that the secondary branches are parallel and 60° angle deflection from the trunk with the length of secondary branches up to 10 μm, quite different from the Cu dendrites reported before. The XRD pattern of the Cu dendritic structure indicates a pure face-centered cubic phase with symmetrical group of \(Fm\bar{3}m(225)\) and lattice constant a=3.615 A. The formation mechanism of the Cu dendritic nanostructures has been discussed in details.