Sonochemical Preparation and Characterization of Nanocrystalline Copper Oxide Embedded in Poly(vinyl alcohol) and Its Effect on Crystal Growth of Copper Oxide

Abstract

Uniformly dispersed copper oxide nanoparticles in poly(vinyl alcohol) (CuO−PVA) have been synthesized by the sonochemical method. The properties of the as-prepared composite material are characterized by XRD, DSC, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), TEM, and diffuse reflection spectroscopy (DRS). A band gap of 2.1 eV is estimated from DRS measurements. The controlled crystal growth of copper oxide has been studied by using the as-prepared CuO−PVA composite as seed for the crystal growth of copper oxide. Well-shaped crystals of 1 μm in length were grown.