Preparation of Elemental Cu and Ni Nanoparticles by the Polyol Method: An Experimental and Theoretical Approach

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between synthesis conditions, crystal morphology, and theoretical modeling of copper and nickel nanoparticles prepared by a modified polyol process. The polyol serves as a solvent, a reducing agent, and a capping agent, and we investigate the role several polyol types play in the nucleation and growth of metallic nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Our results demonstrate that changing the solvent system from a short chain polyol (ethylene glycol) to a long chain polyol (tetraethylene glycol) greatly affects the resulting morphology of copper nanoparticles. These results suggest that the polyol is playing a major role as an in situ capping agent and that the various polyol chain lengths in-turn result in various particle morphologies by directly altering the nucleation and growth steps. We were also able to use theoretical modeling to investig...