Taguchi method assisted optimization of electrochemical synthesis and structural characterization of copper tungstate nanoparticles

Abstract

Electrochemical process was utilized as a facile method for the preparation of copper tungstate nanoparticles by oxidation of copper anode in a sodium tungstate solution. Some of the factors of the synthesis procedure were optimized by the Taguchi robust design. The optimization results showed that the size of copper tungstate particles could be controlled via tuning the electrodeposition factors, including voltage of electrolysis, concentration of tungstate ion, stirring rate of electrolyte solution and also temperature. Characterization of the copper tungstate particle morphology was carried out by different techniques, i. e., SEM, XRD, EDX, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The characterization results showed that the particle size of CuWO4 is influenced by the electrolysis voltage and increasing the voltage from 4 to 8V leads to falling the size of copper tungstate particles, while further voltage increasing from 8 to 12V resulted in larger particles. Further, the size of copper tungstate particles was dependent on the stirring rate and temperature of the electrolyte. The photoluminescence behavior of the nano-material prepared at optimum conditions was studied.