Synthesis of copper oxide nanowires with an emphasis on analyzing the effect of oxidation time on the growth of nanowires

Copper nanowires offers a wide variety of applications in domains like electronics, energy harvesting and heat transfer. Here, spherical copper has been thermally oxidized to produce nano-wired particles. The length and diameter of these CuO nanowires are in the range of approximately 3–15 μm and 100–300 nm respectively. SEM images of the oxidized copper particles were examined to understand the effect of oxidation time on the length and population density of the nanowire. Oxidation times were set from 15 min to 4 h. We report a direct relation between oxidation time and the population density of the nanowires. An increase in length of the wires was observed up to an oxidation time of 3 h, however, further increase in oxidation time did not significantly contribute to an increased length of nanowires. XRD and TGA was performed to identify the phases of CuO and oxidation rate of Cu respectively. (paper)