SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF COPPER OXIDE NANOPARTICLES USING PRECIPITATION METHOD

Abstract

Preparation and properties of CuO nanoparticles as an important p-type semiconductor via a simple precipitation method at different reaction temperatures: 300 0C, 400 0C and 600 0C using copper sulphate and sodium hydroxide as a starting material have been reported. In addition, we investigated the influence of the temperature through synthesizing the nanosized CuO. Results indicated that size and band gap of samples had great dependence on the temperature. The crystallite size and crystallization increased with increasing the temperature, but band gap decreased. The band gap of samples was estimated to be in the range of 3.69–4.28 eV that is larger than the reported value for the bulk CuO (1.85 eV). This study provides a simple method for the preparation of nanosized CuO with a better surface uniformity and a narrow size distribution. Samples were characterized by XRD, and UV-Vis techniques.