A convenient alcohothermal approach for low temperature synthesis of CuO nanoparticles

A convenient alcohothermal route to prepare cupric oxide nanoparticles using copper acetate as the starting material was successfully developed. The influence of reaction temperature on the formation of CuO nanoparticles was investigated. The yield was as high as 100% when the alcohothermal synthesis was carried at 110degreesC. The particle sizes of the CuO nanoparticles can be controlled to be between similar to3 and 9 nm simply by varying the reaction temperature. The possible formation mechanism of CuO nanoparticles via the alcohothermal method is discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.