CuO nanoparticles – Synthesis by wet precipitation technique and its characterization

A simple wet precipitate technique is used to synthesis CuO nanoparticles. The copper chloride and sodium hydroxide are used as precursor. The powder X-ray diffraction confirmed the CuO phase of the synthesized nanoparticles having monoclinic unit cell structure. The near perfect stoichiometry of the synthesized nanoparticles is confirmed by the analysis of the dispersive X-rays technique. The spherical shape and nanostrips morphology is confirmed by the electron microscopy in the field emission scanning and transmission mode analysis respectively. The functional groups related to CuO nanoparticles vibrational bond is assigned to each observed peaks of the Fourier transformed infra-red spectrum. The CuO nanoparticles possess direct optical bandgap of 3.45 eV determined by optical absorbance spectroscopy. The thermal analysis of nanoparticles is carried out by recording the thermocurves; thermogravimetric (TG), differential thermogravimetric (DTG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) curves. The thermal analysis showed four steps endothermic decomposition. The thermal parameters determined by Kissinger relation stated maximum decomposition to be in initial temperature range and at the higher temperature range.