Fabrication of Nanosized Cuprous Oxide Using Fehling's Solution

Abstract

In this paper we describe a facile method for the synthesis of Cu2O nanoparticles by reduction of Fehling's solution, using glucose as reducing agent. Copper sulfate is used as a precursor with potassium sodium tartarate in an alkaline media to produce Fehling's solution. The precipitation of Cu2O nanoparticles from this solution in the presence of glucose was controlled by addition of SLES or Triton-X 100 as surfactants. The reactions have been carried out at 60 C with high repeatability. The puri cation process of the Cu2O product does not require expensive methods, since a solid product is obtained from a reaction in liquid phase. The resulting Cu2O nanoparticles were characterized by X-Ray Di raction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.