Sea urchin-like CuO particles prepared using Cu ₃ (PO ₄ ) ₂ flowers as precursor for high-performance ethanol sensing

Abstract

Abstract Cu 3 (PO 4 ) 2 flowers are reported for the first time as a solid precursor for the preparation of hierarchical CuO particles with sea urchin-like morphology in the absence of self-assembled templates or matrixes. In the alkaline condition, Cu 3 (PO 4 ) 2 transforms into Cu(OH) 2 firstly, and then into CuO through dehydration at room temperature. Different from soluble Cu salt as precursor, the basic building blocks for CuO are continuously supplied in a controlled manner form Cu 3 (PO 4 ) 2 precursor, which ensures a nearly sustained supersaturated concentration that favors heterogeneous nucleation and progressive growth of sea urchin-like CuO particles. The gas sensing property of as-prepared sea urchin-like CuO particles to ethanol is investigated. The sea urchin-like CuO particles exhibit a good sensing performance in terms of high response, short response/recovery time, good selectivity, good reproducibility, and long-term stability. The facile strategy demonstrated here opens up a new strategy to fabricate hierarchical CuO particles with enormous potential from the perspective of practical application.