Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Structural, compositional and optical properties of Copper Oxide

nanoparticles by sol-gel method
J. Naveen Kumar a, V. Ashok Reddy a, S. Roji Marjorie a, S. Thanikaikarasan b,⇑
a
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha University, Chennai 602105, Tamil Nadu, India
b
Division of Physics, Department of Science and Humanities, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha University, Chennai 602105, Tamil Nadu, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Recently Copper Oxide in industries receives huge attention due to its salient features such as structure,
Received 23 January 2020 band gap and chemical properties. In the present communication, we have reported that the growth of
Accepted 26 February 2020 Copper Oxide nanoparticles by the technique of Sol-Gel method. The determination of physical, chemical
Available online xxxx
and optical properties by the characterization techniques viz., X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron micro-
scopy, Ultraviole Visible spectroscopic measurements, respectively. Structural investigation showed that
Keywords: the prepared materials have polycrystalline nature with cubic structure. Composition with morphology
Band gap
revealed shped grains with stoichiometry. The band gap value of the prepared samples is found to be
Cu2O
Stoichiometry
2.62 eV.
X-ray diffraction Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International
Conference on Nanotechnology: Ideas, Innovation and Industries.

1. Introduction pared to the mentioned techniques, sol gel technique seems to

be attractive for many researchers due to its cost of synthesize,
In recent years, interest in nanomaterials has increased dramat- low temperature processing, environmentally friendly technique
ically due to its wide range of applications in drug delivery, cell which can be used for the preparation of nanoparticles. In the pre-
imaging, and cancer therapy because of its physical, chemical sent work, nanoparticles of Cu2O have been prepared by sol gel
and biological properties [1–6]. Metal oxide nanoparticles are synthesize method. The prepared materials have been subjected
extensively used in various fields such as biomedical, catalysis to the characterization techniques viz., X-ray diffraction, Scanning
and semiconductor devices [3–6]. Nanomaterials of metal oxides electron microscopy, Energy dispersive X-ray analysis and Ultravi-
has a unique properties and high value for commercial applications olet Visible spectroscopic techniques, respectively. The observed
because of it is small in size and high density. Crystal structure of results about structural, morphological, compositional and optical
Copper Oxide (Cu2O) is found to be cubic with direct band gap properties of the Cu2O nanoparticles were determined and dis-
value in the range between 2.12 and 2.65 eV [7]. Materials of cussed in detail.
Cu2O are found to be crystallized in cubic (PDF File;41-1445) struc-
ture with lattice constant (a = 4.2602 Å). As the experimental con-
ditions used in the preparation of these materials play an 2. Experimental
important role in the particle size of the products, a great variety
of experimental methods have been used for the preparation of The chemicals used in this present work were of AR grade
nanomaterials. Nanoparticles of Cu2O have been prepared by num- reagents. The sources of chemicals used were 0.1 M Cu(CH3COO)2
ber of techniques such as wet chemical method [9], microwave and 1 M NaOH. The homogeneous solution of Cu(CH3COO)2 and
method [8,10], electrochemical method [11], solvo thermal NaOH was obtained by dissolving 0.336 g of CuCl2 and 0.4998 g
method [12], laser ablation [13], ball milling [14], sonochemical NaOH in 250 cc double distilled water. Initially 0.1 M CuCl2 was
method [15] and pulsed sonoelectrochemistry [16]. When com- taken in 500 ml glass beaker. Thereafter the prepared solution of
1 M NaOH was added to the reaction bath to increase the pH value
from 4.5 ± 0.1 to 9.0 ± 0.1. The obtained solution was stirred
⇑ Corresponding author. dynamically at 30 °C for the duration of 24 h leads to produce
E-mail address: [Link]@[Link] (S. Thanikaikarasan). the formation of precipitation of solution in beaker. The precipitate

[Link]
2214-7853/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Nanotechnology: Ideas, Innovation and Industries.

Please cite this article as: J. Naveen Kumar, V. Ashok Reddy, S. Roji Marjorie et al., Structural, compositional and optical properties of Copper Oxide
nanoparticles by sol-gel method, Materials Today: Proceedings, [Link]
2 J. Naveen Kumar et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

was washed more than three times, thereafter it was filtered and Morphological feature along with composition has been ana-
subjected to the process of annealing at temperature 120 °C for lyzed using an EDX set up attached with scanning electron micro-
the time period of 5 h. The resulting powder sample was collected scope. Typical SEM image of Cu2O nanparticles obtained by the
and kept in dessicator. X-ray diffraction pattern of the Cu2O sam- technique of Sol Gel process is shown Fig. [Link] is spherically
ples were obtained using XPERT PRO PANalytical diffractometer shaped grains within the range of size in between 800 and
with CuKa radiation (k = 0.1.5418 nm) radiation. Composition with 1000 nm. Fig. 3 shows the EDX spectra of Cu2O nanoparticles.
morphology were obtained using Energy dispersive X-ray analysis The appearance of emission lines for Cu and O present in the inves-
set up attached with Scanning electron microscopy (JEOL JSM 840). tigated energy range indicates the formation of Cu2O. The value of
Ultraviolet Visible spectroscopic measurement of the Cu2O atomic percentage (Cu:O) for Cu2O is found be 65.04:41.74 indicat-
nanoparticle were carried out using Ultraviolet Visible Spectrome- ing nearly stoichiometric nature of Cu2O. The observed result is
ter (SCHIMADZU, Singapore) within the range of wavelength in consistent with XRD analysis of the sample with phase corre-
between 350 and 1100 nm. sponds to Cu2O.
Ultraviolet Visible spectroscopic measurements such as per-
centage of transmittance and absorbance of Cu2O nanoparticles
3. Results and discussion have been determined by carrying out the process of optical
absorption analysis within the range of wavelength in between
X-ray diffraction pattern of Cu2O nanoparticles has been 350 and 1100 nm. Owing to the fundamental relation of light inter-
recorded using an XPERT PRO PANanalytical X-ray diffractometer ference for any materials A + R + T = 100, where A, R, T are the per-
within range of diffraction of angles in between 20 and 80. The centage of absorbance, transmittance and reflectance of Cu2O
diffraction peaks Cu2O are found at 2h values of angles 29.87, nanoparticles. The transmittance spectra showed that nanoparti-
36.37, 42.29, 61.27, 73.54, 77.81 corresponding to the lattice cles of Cu2O have maximum value of transmittance percentage at
planes (110), (111), (200), (220), (311), (222), respectively. Forma- 550 nm as shown in Fig. 4. The presence of nature transition has
tion of Cu2O with polycrystalline nature along with cubic structure been estimated using the following Eq. (2) [18]
is confirmed without significant impurities may be due to the com-
n
pletion of the reaction. The peaks in the diffractogram are identi-
ahv ¼ A hv  Eg ð2Þ
fied and the corresponding values of ‘‘d” spacing is calculated
and compared with standard JCPDS ICDD file for cubic Cu2O [17].
All the identified peaks are from Cu2O and no one peak correspond-
ing to Cuand O are present in XRD pattern as shown in Fig. 1. It is
also observed that the intensity of peak at 2h value 36.37 is found
to be higher than all other peaks in the diffractogram indicated that
the crystallites are oriented preferentially along (111) plane. Debye
Scherrer formula with FWHM data has been used to estimate the
size of crystallites of the prepared Cu2O nanoparticles [18].

kk
D¼ ð1Þ
bcosh

where D is the size of the crystallite in nm, k is the shape factor

(k = 0.9), k is the wavelength of CuKa used (k = 1.5418 Å), b is Full
width at Half Maxmium of the peak position in radian, h is Bragg’s
diffraction angle at peak position in degree. The sizes of the
nanoparticles are found to be in the range of 35 nm.

Fig. 2. SEM image of Cu2O nanoparticles.

Fig. 1. XRD pattern recorded for Cu2O nanoparticles. Fig. 3. EDX spectrum of Cu2O nanoparticles.

Please cite this article as: J. Naveen Kumar, V. Ashok Reddy, S. Roji Marjorie et al., Structural, compositional and optical properties of Copper Oxide
nanoparticles by sol-gel method, Materials Today: Proceedings, [Link]
 J. Naveen Kumar et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

value of Cu2O nanoparticles. The band gap value of the Cu2O

nanoparticles is found to be 2.61 eV.

4. Conclusions

Nanoparticles of Cu2O were prepared by the process of Sol Gel

technique. Structural properties showed that the nanoparticles of
Cu2O are polycrystalline nature. The prepared Cu2O samples exhib-
ited cubic structure with most prominent reflection along (111)
plane. Compositional analysis showed that the stoichiometric nat-
ure of Cu2O nanoparticles. The estimated value of band gap was
found to be 2.61 eV.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-

Fig. 4. Transmittance spectrum of Cu2O nano particles.
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Please cite this article as: J. Naveen Kumar, V. Ashok Reddy, S. Roji Marjorie et al., Structural, compositional and optical properties of Copper Oxide
nanoparticles by sol-gel method, Materials Today: Proceedings, [Link]