Synthesis and characterisation of copper nanomaterial

Abstract

Copper nanomaterial has been prepared via an electrochemical technique. Aqueous copper sulfate solution was used in the process. A wide range of experimental conditions, both concentration of the electrolyte and current density values were employed. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, fluorescent microscopy and UV-vis optical absorption spectrophotometry techniques were used to characterise the deposited material. The results indicate the formation of copper nanostructures, of diameter ≈ 50 nm-100 nm, when using the right current density and the right concentration of the electrolyte. The synthesised nanoscaled structures were found to be polycrystalline in nature and exhibited green colour under blue/violet illumination. Using other concentrations of the electrolyte and current density values resulted in the deposition of micron-sized metallic copper agglomerates.