One pot synthesis of copper nanoparticles at room temperature and its catalytic activity

A facile reduction approach with sodium borohydride as a reducing agent and starch as a stabilizing agent leads to monodispersed Cu nanoparticles in aqueous medium at an ambient condition. The synthesized nanoparticles are highly pure with no traces of CuO found on surface. They are uniform in size in the range of 40-80 nm. The Cu nanoparticles have a FCC structure as characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that they are arranged in a regular array which is separated by starch thin layer which controls the growth as well as stabilizes the Cu nanoparticles from air oxidation. The catalytic activity of prepared Cu nanomaterial was tested in Ullman reaction for the synthesis of biphenyl from iodobenzene. We have shown in this paper that the size as well as exposed surface area of the copper nanoparticles is responsible for the increase in yield of biphenyl up to 92%. This is higher compare to the 40% yield with the normal size copper powder under the same reaction condition. (C) 2012 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.