Morphology control of ultrafine cuprous oxide powder and its growth mechanism

Four shapes of Cu2O particles as sphere, cube, truncated octahedron and octahedron were prepared via glucose reduction of Cu(II) under alkaline condition. The products were characterized by XRD and SEM. The effects of the precursor (CuO, Cu(OH)(2)), reaction temperature and glucose concentration on morphology of Cu2O particles were investigated, and the mechanism of morphology control was discussed on the basic theory of crystal nucleation and growth. It is found that the Cu+ supersaturation is remarkably influenced by the precursor kind, reaction temperature and glucose concentration, and the morphology of Cu2O particles can be controlled by the Cu+ supersaturation.