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CAS Number: 1317-39-1
Molecular Weight: 143.09
EC Number: 215-270-7
MDL number: MFCD00010974
PubChem Substance ID: 57651589
NACRES: NA.21
APPLICATIONS
There are a lot of applications of cuprous oxide as there are several different types and ways in which cuprous oxide exists.
All these different types are produced after going through various processes which are all authentic in their nature.
Their capabilities are all dependent upon the properties that these compounds exhibit and eventually lead up to the different applications, all of which are highly unique in their nature.
Cuprous oxide is used in the following products: fertilisers, fillers, putties, plasters, modelling clay, inks and toners, paper chemicals and dyes and polymers.
Cuprous oxide is commonly used as a pigment, a fungicide, and an antifouling agent for marine paints.
Rectifier diodes based on Cuprous oxide have been used industrially as early as 1924, long before silicon became the standard.
Copper(I) oxide is also responsible for the pink color in a positive Benedict's test.
In December 2021, Toshiba announced the creation of a transparent cuprous oxide (Cu2O) thin-film solar cell.
The cell achieved an 8.4% energy conversion efficiency, the highest efficiency ever reported for any cell of this type as of 2021.
The cells could be used for high-altitude platform station applications and electric vehicles.
Cuprous oxide is a very active element that is used to produce many products for many different commercial applications.
Cuprous oxide, or Cu2O, is a chemical compound used in both industry and in the building trades as a super high purity reagent, catalyst, and as an effective anti-corrosive.
Cuprous oxide is especially used in manufacturing and process control, as well as in the construction industry.
Cuprous oxide is also used for water treatment, especially for the purification of water to remove dissolved particulates and in the polymerization of specific polymers.
Cuprous oxide is mainly used as a catalyst in metallurgy, a process that is important to the production of iron and steel.
In the oxidation of iron, the catalyst functions as a reducing agent.
In the production of iron, the catalyst also functions as a reducing agent.
Cuprous oxide is used in many applications, including the manufacture of fertilizers, and is also used as a feed additive for farm animals.
The purity of cuprous oxide is so high that it is used in the manufacture of cathode ray tubes (known as CRTs or just “tubes”), which are used in TVs and computer monitors.
Cuprous oxide (also known as copper(II) oxide) is used as a pigment and fire retardant, and as a flux for the smelting of metals.
Cuprous oxide is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless solid that is insoluble in water.
Moreover, Cuprous oxide is the most widely used oxide in industrial and domestic settings.
Cuprous oxide is formed by the oxidation of copper metal in air at approximately 1100–1300 °C.
Cuprous oxide is a chemical compound, and sometimes it is also called "cuprous oxide chloride".
Also, Cuprous oxide is a colorless, odorless, crystalline solid.
Cuprous oxide, also known as cupric oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless oxide of the metal cuprous.
Cuprous oxide is an important commercial chemical used in refining of metals and is mainly produced as a by-product of copper smelting.
Cuprous oxide was the first substance known to behave as a semiconductor.
Rectifier diodes based on this material were used industrially as early as 1924, long before silicon became the standard.
Cuprous oxidee shows four well understood series of excitons with resonance widths in the range of neV.
The associated polaritons are also well understood; their group velocity turns out to be very low, almost down to the speed of sound.
That means light moves almost as slow as sound in this medium.
This results in high polariton densities, and effects like Bose-Einstein condensation, the dynamical Stark effect and phonoritons have been demonstrated.
Another extraordinary feature of the ground state excitons is that all primary scattering mechanisms are known quantitatively.
Cuprous oxide was the first substance where an entirely parameter-free model of absorption linewidth broadening by temperature could be established, allowing the corresponding absorption coefficient to be deduced.
It can be shown using Cuprous oxide that the Kramers-Krönig relations do not apply to polaritons.
Cuprous oxide can be used:
-As a precursor to prepare nanoparticles, nanocrystals, and quantum dots for various applications.
-To catalyze the N-arylation of azoles under aqueous conditions using phase-transfer catalyst.
-To prepare reduced graphene oxide-based nano copper composites applicable as a sensor for the detection of dopamine.
-As a copper precursor to prepare Cu2O-TiO2 nanoparticle-based composite materials with aluminosilicate geopolymers applicable in the removal of organic pollutants from water.
Cuprous oxide applications:
-Anti-fouling coatings
-Mineral supplement for animal diets
-Colorant for porcelain, glazes, and glass
-Catalyst
-Brazing pastes
-Agricultural foliar fertilizer
-Agricultural fungicide and seed dressing
Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is an attractive material for solar energy applications, but its photoconductivity is limited by minority carrier recombination caused by native defect trap states.
Cuprous oxide is a narrow bandgap (1.8–2.2 eV) p-type semiconductor that is abundant and cheap.
Because of this, Cuprous oxide can also absorb a substantial portion of the solar spectrum.
Its conduction band and valence band positions are theoretically appropriate to facilitate both the CO2 reduction and water splitting reactions.
Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) can be used as a potential candidate in solar-energy conversion, gas sensors, magnetic storage, and electronics.
CUPROUS OXIDE IN PAINTS
Cuprous oxide is commonly used as a pigment, a fungicide, and an antifouling agent for marine paints.
Rectifier diodes based on this material have been used industrially as early as 1924, long before silicon became the standard.
Cuprous oxide is also responsible for the pink color in a positive Benedict’s test.
Cuprous oxide is used as a pigment in porcelain glazes and stained glass.
In opaque glass, it provides a bright brick-red color if large enough crystals are used.
Smaller crystals give a yellowish color.
The use of Cuprous oxide as a pigment in glazes dates back to the time of ancient Egypt.
Many antifouling marine paints contain Cuprous oxide.
Antifouling paints are paints that prevent the formation of barnacles and other organisms on the bottom of a boat.
Cuprous oxide is also used as an antifungal agent, a substance that kills mildew, rust, and other types of fungus.
Fungicides based on Cuprous oxide are commonly used on a variety of crops susceptible to attack by such organisms.
Cuprous oxide acts by inhibiting the growth of fungal spores (from which new plants develop) rather than killing mature fungi.
Until now, Cuprous oxide’s main applications have been in the fields of energy conversion and environment, specifically chemical templates, sensors, and catalysts.
Our main focus in this section is on the typically improved and unusual performances that are generated by tailoring hybrid Cu2O nanocomposites and Cu2O’s crystal facets.
Also, there is a brief highlighting of the faceted Cuprous oxide-templated strategy to produce well-defined hollow architectures.
Catalysts
-Photodegradation
According to the practical applications, including organic synthesis, CO2 reduction, water splitting, and pollutants degradation, photocatalysis usage is divided into four major areas.
All these areas have employed Cuprous oxide-based photocatalysts.
There have been demonstrations of the Cuprous oxide photocatalysts with large surface areas being efficient for pollutants’ photocatalytic degradation due to strong oxidative species’ long-time generation under solar light irradiation.
Although, when it comes to reactants, these oxidative species are less selective, resulting in photocatalyst’s poor selectivity.
Other than the interface effect of hybrid Cuprous oxide-based nanostructures, a platform is offered by the tailoring of the crystal facets to enhance the selectivity in which the reactants’ adsorption-desorption can be affected by the surface atomic structures, and the redox potential of photogenerated holes and electrons can be tuned by the corresponding electronic structures.
Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting
Solar energy can be harvested by the photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar cells for it to be converted into hydrogen fuel via water splitting.
A p-type Cuprous oxide semiconductor is of particular interest for PEC solar water splitting and hydrogen generation due to its unique features, like a 2.0 ~ 2.2 eV of direct band-gap for favorable energy band positions, good carrier mobility, and visible light absorption for PEC water splitting, with the conduction band lying +0.7 V below the hydrogen evolution potential.
There have been reports of a theoretically estimated photocurrent of -14.7 mAcm−2 with 18% corresponding efficiency for light-to-hydrogen conversion.
Recently, there has been an exploration of a single Cuprous oxide photocatalyst for hydrogen production and solar-driven water splitting.
Cuprous oxide’s stability depends on its morphology to some extent in which the stability is improved by the photogenerated carrier’s quick removal from the photocathode surface.
Decomposition
However, Cuprous oxide photocatalysts can decompose water in distilled water into oxygen and hydrogen under visible light irradiation, but it is very different from the photochemical reaction in an aqueous electrolyte on the polarized Cuprous oxide electrodes.
As the redox potentials for monovalent Cuprous oxide’s oxidation and reduction lies within the bandgap, the usage of Cuprous oxide for water reduction as a photocathode is electrolyte’s instability under illumination, limiting their applications in the production of solar energy.
Thus, Cuprous oxide can be a promising material in conjunction with an appropriate redox system as a p-type photoelectrode in an electrochemical photovoltaic cell.
Therefore stabilization of the Cuprous oxide photoelectrodes surface demands the usage of a conformal coating.
Carbon Dioxide’s Photo-reduction
We can satisfy the increasing needs of clean energy by carbon dioxide’s (CO2) photochemical reduction to the value-added chemicals or fuels.
According to recent findings, Cuprous oxide is a suitable option of photocatalyst for carbon dioxide’s photo-reduction that the visible light drives.
Observing the Cuprous oxide facet's influence on the photo-reduction of CO2 was extremely interesting and according to the results, as compared to the octahedral ones, higher activity was displayed by the cuboid aggregated Cu2O.
As compared to Cuprous oxide nanobelt arrays in CO2 reduction, higher activity is possessed by the stone-like p-type Cuprous oxide both in photoelectrochemical and electrochemical systems.
Although, there is still a need for detailed investigations for uncovering the abnormal facet-dependent CO2 photo-reduction performance's underlined principles.
Improvement
Cuprous oxide-based nanostructures can significantly achieve the enhancement of carbon dioxide’s conversion efficiency.
For instance, under solar light, Carbon dioxide’s photoelectrochemical reduction can be improved by the Cuprous oxide that's anchored on the surface Cu electrode.
As compared to carbon dioxide's conversion efficiency over Cu/Cu2O (n-type) electrode with the same morphology as p-type, the conversion efficiency over Cu/Cu2O (p-type) electrode is way higher.
RuOx nanoparticle's deposition on the Cuprous oxide led to a twofold increased yield of long-lived electrons, which ends up in the improvement of carbon dioxide's visible-light-driven photo-reduction.
An improved photocatalytic activity for carbon dioxide’s reduction to methanol can be displayed by the Cu2O/TiO2 heterostructure nanotube arrays that are made by an electrodeposition method.
More photo-reaction active sites can be provided by the porous Cu2O/TiO2 nano junction and they can also aid in the CO2 absorption.
Gas Sensors
In past decades, there has been a huge number of investigations on gas-sensing materials to detect targeted gas, which involves the fields of human health, public safety, environmental protection, and the chemical industry.
A suitable amount of deionized water was mixed with the as-tested gas-sensing material, and the above-mentioned paste was deposited with two electrodes onto a ceramic tube.
Then an indirect-heated gas sensor was fabricated by putting a wired heater into the ceramic tube's center.
The gas-sensing heat system's heating current was adjusted to obtain the sensor's different operating temperatures.
At last, after aging with a stable voltage at a particular relative current for a long time, gas sensing was achieved.
Other Applications
Until now, there has been the usage of the Cuprous oxide crystals in the fields of chemical template, sensor template, and photocatalyst, mainly.
Although, in applications like metal-insulator-metal resistive switching memories, supercapacitors, sodium-ion batteries, lithium-ion batteries, solar energy conversion, and antibacterial activity, Cuprous oxide crystals with tailored architectures holds significance.
Like that, in order to promote the above applications, tailoring Cuprous oxide crystals facet-index for forming particular reactive surfaces is required.
For instance, there have been demonstrations of the morphology-dependent antibacterial activities by Wang and coworkers.
According to the results, as compared to the cubic ones that owe to the exposed surface's different atomic arrangements, higher activity in the killing of E. coli was possessed by the octahedral Cuprous oxide.
Bacteriostatic Effects
In addition, obvious bacteriostatic effects are shown by Cuprous oxide which are majorly determined by their morphologies.
For example, according to the findings of Guo and coworkers, as compared to the cubic ones, the octahedral Cuprous oxide nanocrystals produce more reactive oxygen species and higher immobilization ratio, suggesting that different toxicity effects are caused to cladocerans by two morphological nanocrystals because of their dissimilarities in specific surface activities.
There were studies on the electrochemical lithiation characteristics of various polyhedral Cuprous oxide as anodes for Lithium-ion batteries.
It is expected that the usage of Cuprous oxide with tailored architectures in these applications will result in some expected characteristics.
Although applying Cuprous oxide crystals in all of the above-mentioned fields is still under progress.
DESCRIPTION
Copper(I) oxide or cuprous oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula Cu2O.
Cuprous oxide is one of the principal oxides of copper, the other being or copper(II) oxide or cupric oxide (CuO).
This red-coloured solid is a component of some antifouling paints.
Cuprous oxide can appear either yellow or red, depending on the size of the particles.
Cuprous oxide is found as the reddish mineral cuprite.
Cuprous oxide is a weak inorganic base that can be used to activate halides for nucleophilic substitution reaction.
Also, Cuprous oxide is used in decarboxylation and cyclo condensation reactions.
Cuprous oxide, a red crystalline material, can be produced by electrolytic or furnace methods.
Moreover, Cuprous oxide is reduced readily by hydrogen, carbon monoxide, charcoal, or iron to metallic copper.
Cuprous oxide imparts a red colour to glass and is used for antifouling paints.
Cuprous oxide is soluble in mineral acids to form colourless cuprous salts, most of which rapidly oxidize to the cupric state.
Cuprous oxide is also commonly known as copper oxide which is basically an inorganic compound comprising of copper and oxygen.
Cuprous oxide has some excellent properties that enable it to surpass a lot of copper compounds.
They have semiconducting properties as well which enable them to possess their related applications.
With Cu2O as its formula, Cuprous oxide or Copper (I) oxide is the inorganic compound.
One of copper’s principal oxides is known as copper (I) oxide or cuprous oxide, the other being cupric oxide (CuO) or copper (II) oxide.
Cuprous oxide is a solid red color and it is a component of some of the antifouling paints.
The color of Cuprous oxide can be red or yellow, it is determined by the particle's size.
One can find Cuprous oxide as cuprite that is a reddish mineral.
Copper(I) Oxide is also called as cuprous oxide, an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Cu2O.
Cuprous oxide is covalent in nature.
Additionally, Cuprous oxide crystallizes in a cubic structure.
Cuprous oxide is easily reduced by hydrogen when heated.
It undergoes disproportionation in acid solutions producing copper(II) ions and copper.
When the cupric oxide is gently heated with metallic copper, it is converted into cuprous oxide.
Cuprous oxide acts as a good corrosion resistance, due to reactions at the surface between the copper and the oxygen in air to give a thin protective oxide layer.
The name “cuprite” of cuprous oxide Cu2O comes from the Latin “cuprum”, meaning copper.
Old miners used to call it “ruby copper”.
Cuprite mineral has been a major ore of copper and is still mined in many places around the world.
Of all the copper ores, except for native copper, cuprite gives the greatest yield of copper per molecule since there is only one oxygen atom to every two copper atoms.
As a mineral specimen, cuprite shows fine examples of well-developed cubic crystal forms.
Crystal habits include the cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and combinations of these forms.
Cuprous oxide’s color is red to a deep red that can appear almost black. Dark crystals show internal reflections of the true deep red inside the almost black crystal.
Other varieties, such as chalcotrichite, form long needle-like crystals that have a beautiful red color and a special sparkle that make them popular display cabinet specimens.
Cuprite (or cuprous oxide) is the oldest material of semiconductor electronics (Brattain 1951).
Cuprous oxide has been the subject of numerous theoretical and experimental studies, but still its electronic and atomic structures continue to puzzle the researchers.
New applications of Cuprous oxide in nanoelectronics, spintronics, and photovoltaics are emerging.
However, our present interest in this material is motivated by the fact that Cuprous oxide is a commonly occurring corrosion product of copper.
Understanding Cuprous oxide at the electronic and atomic structure levels may be useful for predicting and controlling the corrosion behavior of copper.
Cuprous Oxide (Cu2O) is a photocatalyst with severe photocorrosion issues.
Theoretically, Cuprous oxide can undergo both self-oxidation (to form copper oxide (CuO)) and self-reduction (to form metallic copper (Cu)) upon illumination with the aid of photoexcited charges.
There is, however, limited experimental understanding of the “dominant” photocorrosion pathway.
Both photocorrosion modes can be regulated by tailoring the conditions of the photocatalytic reactions.
Cuprous oxide is a compound that forms under the right circumstances in nature.
Cuprous oxide is a reddish-orange color that is used in photocells, laser diodes, thermometers, glow-in-the-dark paint, thermoelectric generators, and air purification systems, to name just a few.
Cuprous oxide is a solid that is made by the reaction of molten sodium and oxygen in a procedure that is known as cuprous oxide production.
Also, Cuprous oxide is often used as a catalyst for the production of other chemicals.
Cuprous oxide is used in the manufacturing of zinc chloride, ferrous chloride, and others.
And Cuprous oxide is used as a UV absorber in surface treatment products.
Cuprous oxide is a compound of copper and oxygen.
Cuprous oxide is used in a number of applications, including a number of different compounds that are used as catalysts in various reactions, including: Nitric oxide Oxidation of ammonia to nitrate in air catalysts (e.g. in the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer) Nitrogen oxides used in the manufacture of explosives.
Cuprous oxide (also known as cuprous oxide or cadmium oxide) is a chemical compound used to make batteries and plastic.
Moreover, Cuprous oxide is a white, colorless, odorless solid. Cuprous oxide is one of the most common oxides used in batteries, accounting for 9% to 15% of all batteries.
Cuprous oxide is also used in metal production, building and construction, and in the production of plastics and other organic compounds.
Cuprous oxide is a component in certain paints, and is used as an oxidizer in a number of metal plating processes.
Cuprous oxide has been known for hundreds of years.
In fact, Cuprous oxide was one of the first substances that was used to make brass (copper with a little bit of zinc added).
The first discovery of pure cuprous oxide was made in the 1600s by a Swedish scientist, Johan Gadolin, who was searching for a material that could be used to make gunpowder.
The first synthetic cuprous oxide was made in 1882 by a German chemist, Friedrich Wöhler, who was trying to make a dye.
The first thing to consider is the source of the cuprous oxide.
Cuprous oxide is a white powder that is very pure and very stable.
Cuprous oxide is listed as a hazardous waste in the U.S., but countries like China, Japan, and the UK (among others) still produce the chemical and sell it to the US for use in various industries.
Copper(I) oxide or cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is an oxide of copper.
Additionally, Cuprous oxide is insoluble in water and organic solvents.
Cuprous oxide dissolves in concentrated ammonia solution to form the colourless complex[Cu(NH3)2]+, which easily oxidizes in air to the blue[Cu(NH3)4(H2O)2]2+.
Cuprous oxide dissolves in hydrochloric acid to form HCuCl2 (a complex of CuCl), while dilute sulfuric acid and nitric acid produce copper(II) sulfate and copper(II) nitrate, respectively.
Cuprous oxide is found as the mineral cuprite in some red-colored rocks.
When Cuprous oxide is exposed to oxygen, copper will naturally oxidize to copper(I) oxide, but this takes extensive periods of time.
Artificial formation is usually accomplished at high temperature or at high oxygen pressure.
With further heating, copper(I) oxide will form copper(II) oxide.
Formation of Cuprous oxide is the basis of the Fehling's test and Benedict's test for reducing sugars which reduce an alkaline solution of a copper(II) salt and give a precipitate of Cuprous oxide.
Cuprous oxide forms on silver-plated copper parts exposed to moisture when the silver layer is porous or damaged; this kind of corrosion is known as red plague.
PREPERATION
Cuprous oxide may be produced by several methods.
Most straightforwardly, Cuprous oxide arises via the oxidation of copper metal:
4 Cu + O2 → 2 Cu2O
Additives such as water and acids affect the rate of this process as well as the further oxidation to copper(II) oxides.
It is also produced commercially by reduction of copper(II) solutions with sulfur dioxide.
Basic Strategies to Synthesize Faceted Cuprous Oxide Crystals
Many synthetic methods like irradiation technique, sputtering, electrodeposition, and wet-chemistry route like solvothermal synthesis, hydrothermal synthesis, and liquid reduction, can be used to prepare faceted Cu2O micro-/nanocrystals.
The most broadly utilized method among those is the wet-chemistry method for manipulating Cuprous oxide crystals’ exposure facets due to the versatile ability in the tailoring of the growth rates and nucleation along various orientations.
Gibbs-Wulff‘s law theoretically determines the crystal’s equilibrium shape.
Facets of high surface energies will generally reduce from the final appearance or disappear under equilibrium conditions particularly for the high-index facets. However, under realistic conditions, the interplay between kinetics and thermodynamics results in the exposed facets and the final shapes of crystals.
Thermodynamic Viewpoint
According to a thermodynamic viewpoint, the inherent need to lessen the total surface energy drives the crystal’s shape-evolution during its growth process.
Capping reagent’s specific facet-selective adsorption (including inorganic ion, impurity molecule, polymer, and surfactant) in a solution-phase system is an efficient method to expose various facets and reduce surface energy, leading to the appearance of a non-equilibrium Wulff construction.
Capping reagent’s role in tailoring the crystal’s morphology offers a guideline for rational design and synthesizing of the Cuprous oxide micro-/nanocrystals with required surface characteristics.
Capping Agent’s Capability and Selectivity
Basically, the distance between two adjacent undercoordinated Cu atoms on the facets and/or the density of undercoordinated Cu atoms controls the Capping agent’s capability and selectivity on various facets for a Cuprous oxide crystal.
Thus the capping agent’s choice is important in controlling the Cuprous oxide crystals’ preserved facets.
It is due to the diversities of the organic capping agents that they perform a major role in controlling Cuprous oxide crystals shapes.
For example, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) with various charges, can function as the capping agents of facets.
Formation of Crystal Facets
Also, inorganic ions can be used as capping agents to form the specific crystal facets and there have been reports of it being successful in recent years.
Moreover, the exposed facets' surface energies are determined by the supersaturation of growth species during crystal growth in thermodynamics, providing a general way to produce the particular high-energy surfaces.
The control of [Cu(OH)4] 2– species features can easily achieve Cu2O's shape-evolution, particularly from the simple to complex architectures.
Shape Evolution
Various facets' growth rate significantly determines the crystal's shape evolution during its nucleation and growth.
Reducer's species are tuned for producing various non-equilibrium architectures which may significantly influence the growth manner and nucleation.
Although, various complicated factors are always involved in the kinetic control, so there still is an unclear relationship between the kinetic factor and the facet structure.
There has been a broad usage of a directional chemical etching based on crystallographic anisotropy in tailoring Cuprous oxide architectures, and that has provided some specific benefits in the formation of Cuprous oxide with particular surface atomic structures.
Hollow Cuprous Oxide Crystals
Being one kind of perspective architecture, there have been extensive investigations on the hollow nanostructure because of their good surface permeability for mass and charge (gas) transport, refractive index, coefficient of thermal expansion, low density, and large surface area.
Thus, it is a challenge to tune the hollow structure's surface behavior accurately and a considerable scientific value is possessed by the complete understanding of the growth process and production mechanisms.
Until now, a huge amount of efforts have been made for the preparation of numerous hollow Cu2O architectures (for instance multi-shelled spheres, nano frames, and nanocages) by various growth mechanisms like Ostwald ripening, oxidative etching, and solid-state precursor transformation (including CuO and CuCl).
Nature of the Crystals
When in presence of various interparticle boundaries, the synthesized hollow Cuprous oxide crystals are polycrystalline basically.
Although, both the structural coherence and long-range electronic connectivity are equally important in enhancing both electron mobility and high conductivity.
The integration of being single and hollow crystalline shells in Cuprous oxide crystals is thus the solution of obtaining the demand but it still is a challenge.
In comparison to the classical growth models, oriented attachment is different, which usually takes place before the Ostwald ripening process to make a hollow architecture.
For instance, the production of multi-shelled Cuprous oxide hollow spheres with a single-crystalline shell was assisted by the multilamellar vesicle and there were demonstrations of it in a CuSO4/cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/AA/NaOH system.
Porous Cuprous oxide Crystals
A huge amount of attention has been gained by the porous nanomaterials with controllable pores because of their capability of interacting with the molecules, ions, and atoms but not only at the surface but in the interior too.
In that sense, the best performance of these architectures is observed in mesoporous systems.
Until now, there has been a successful synthesis of the porous Cuprous oxide materials and their applicability is mainly in the fields of catalyst and dye adsorption.
Thus, it is still important to fabricate and design novel porous Cuprous oxide nanostructures with good performances and suitable pore sizes.
Initially, small nanoparticles building blocks aggregate together during Cuprous oxide crystal’s solution-phase growth, and the aggregates evolved into the comparative stable architectures frequently through a ripening mechanism for minimizing the reaction system’s overall energy, therefore when some polymer or organic molecules are introduced, there are chances of modifications of the surface energies of building blocks.
Thus, a major role would be played by tailoring the aggregation behaviors of nanoparticle building blocks in controlling the production of the porous Cuprous oxide nanostructures.
Soft-template Method
There has been broad usage of the soft-template method for architecting porous Cuprous oxide nanospheres.
Hydroxyl group for instance functions as a capping radical and it can also cause modification in the building blocks’ aggregation manner, resulting in the production of disordered Cuprous oxide porous nanospheres.
There have been demonstrations of the β-cyclodextrin (β-CD)-driven assembly of the porous Cuprous oxide nanospheres.
A crown-ether type architecture can be generated on the binding of the ethylene oxide in triblock copolymer’s poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) segments in aqueous solution with the metal ions, and it is a result of dipole-ion interactions between the ethylene oxide linkages’ lone pair electron and the metal ion.
Thus, copper atoms join with an oxygen atom in a hydrophilic PEO group preferentially with the help of triblock copolymers for forming short-range-ordered Cuprous oxide mesoporous spheres.
Highly Ordered Porous Nanostructures
It should be noted that highly ordered porous nanostructures possess significant benefits because of their large surface areas as they offer more active sites for 3-dimensional connected networks and catalytic reaction for transfer of mass (like ion and molecule) from the exterior to the interior for speeding up the chemical reaction.
Although, controlling the porous nanomaterials shapes via organic agent-assisted self-organization is more complicated in comparison to controlling the non-ordered porous materials shapes.
Therefore, developing ordered non-spherical Cuprous oxide porous nanostructures is still a challenge.
Cuprous oxide Thin Films
Another significant issue to expand the application in the energy conversion is the development of the Cuprous oxide thin films with tailored architectures.
When preparing Cuprous oxide thin films, one should necessarily consider these two main points.
First is the intimate contact between substrates and the Cuprous oxide thin films for enabling the transfer of a smooth interface charge carrier.
Second is the building block’s orientation tuning in the film for maximizing the benefits.
Until now, there have been various applications of numerous synthesis methods like anodic oxidation, sputtering, electrodeposition, chemical vapor deposition, and thermal oxidation for preparing Cuprous oxide.
Electrodeposition
Electrodeposition is among the widely available methods that are a cheap and versatile method to make thin films over the conductive substrates, which can control the shapes, sizes, and orientations of the electrodeposited films efficiently by doing adjustment of the electrochemical solution conditions (for instance additive agent, solvent, species of the substrate, pH value, applied voltage, temperature, concentration, and so on).
One can easily attain Cuprous oxide thin films with a series of symmetric dendritic morphologies and orientations, and an optimum combination of charge-transport characteristics and surface areas could be obtained, resulting in the applications in the solar energy conversion.
Distribution of Building Blocks
An enhanced electrodeposited method was used by Zhai and coworkers for specifically controlling the building blocks orientation distribution in Cuprous oxide thin films for obtaining oriented Cuprous oxide thin films with various faceted features and high crystallization in the citric ions’ presence at comparatively higher pH value and mild temperature.
REACTIONS
Aqueous cuprous chloride solutions react with base to give the same material.
In all cases, the color is highly sensitive to the procedural details.
Formation of Cuprous oxide is the basis of the Fehling's test and Benedict's test for reducing sugars.
These sugars reduce an alkaline solution of a copper(II) salt, giving a bright red precipitate of Cuprous oxide.
It forms on silver-plated copper parts exposed to moisture when the silver layer is porous or damaged.
This kind of corrosion is known as red plague.
Little evidence exists for copper(I) hydroxide CuOH, which is expected to rapidly undergo dehydration.
A similar situation applies to the hydroxides of gold(I) and silver(I).
PROPERTIES
The solid of Cuprous oxide is diamagnetic.
In terms of their coordination spheres, copper centres are 2-coordinated and the oxides are tetrahedral.
The structure thus resembles in some sense the main polymorphs of SiO2, and both structures feature interpenetrated lattices.
Cuprous oxide dissolves in concentrated ammonia solution to form the colourless complex [Cu(NH3)2]+, which is easily oxidized in air to the blue [Cu(NH3)4(H2O)2]2+. It dissolves in hydrochloric acid to give solutions of CuCl−2.
Dilute sulfuric acid and nitric acid produce copper(II) sulfate and copper(II) nitrate, respectively.
Cuprous oxide degrades to copper(II) oxide in moist air.
Cuprous oxide crystallizes in a cubic structure with a lattice constant al = 4.2696 Å.
The copper atoms arrange in a fcc sublattice, the oxygen atoms in a bcc sublattice.
One sublattice is shifted by a quarter of the body diagonal.
The space group is Pn3m, which includes the point group with full octahedral symmetry.
Cu2O: Copper(I) Oxide
Density: 6 g/cm³
Molecular Weight/ Molar Mass: 143.09 g/mol
Boiling Point: 1,800 °C
Melting Point: 1,232 °C
Chemical Formula: Cu2O
-Semiconductor properties
In the history of semiconductor physics, Cuprous oxide is one of the most studied materials, and many experimental semiconductor applications have been demonstrated first in this material:
-Semiconductor
-Semiconductor diodes
-Phonoritons ("a coherent superposition of exciton, photon, and phonon")
The lowest excitons in Cuprous oxide are extremely long lived; absorption lineshapes have been demonstrated with neV linewidths, which is the narrowest bulk exciton resonance ever observed.
The associated quadrupole polaritons have low group velocity approaching the speed of sound.
Thus, light moves almost as slowly as sound in this medium, which results in high polariton densities.
Another unusual feature of the ground state excitons is that all primary scattering mechanisms are known quantitatively.
Cuprous oxide was the first substance where an entirely parameter-free model of absorption linewidth broadening by temperature could be established, allowing the corresponding absorption coefficient to be deduced.
It can be shown using Cuprous oxide that the Kramers–Kronig relations do not apply to polaritons.
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
The electron energy bands of Cuprous oxide have been extensively studied mainly because of its unusual exciton spectrum [cuprite exhibits a long series of exciton transitions, beginning with a forbidden line.
There are some other aspects of electronic structure of cuprite that are interesting from a theoretical point of view.
For instance, non-cubic symmetry of the local coordination of Cu cations in this compound causes a non-vanishing electric field gradient on the Cu nuclei, quite uncommon a situation for cubic structures (Marksteiner et al. 1986).
Since the crystal structure of cuprite combines high overall symmetry with low symmetry of local coordination, it has also been used as a benchmark system to test computer codes for electronic structure calculations.
SYNONYMS
Copper (I) oxide
copper (I) oxide
Copper oxide
Cuprous oxide
(cupriooxy)copper
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Copper (I) Oxide
Copper (I) oxide
copper (I) oxide
Copper (I) oxide
Copper hydrate
copper hydrate
copper hydrate.
Copper oxide (Cu2O)
copper (1) oxide
Copper hemioxide
Copper nordox
Copper oxide
Copper oxide, red
Copper protoxide
Copper suboxide
bakar(I) oksid (hr)
bakrov (I) oksid (sl)
cuprooxid (da)
Dibakrov oksid (hr)
dibakrov oksid (hr)
Dibakrov oksid (sl)
dibakrov oksid (sl)
Dicopper oxide (no)
dikobberoksid (no)
dikobberoxid (da)
Dikoperoxide (nl)
dikoperoxide (nl)
Dikopparoxid (sv)
dikopparoxid (sv)
Dikuparioksidi (fi)
Dikupferoxid (de)
Diréz-oxid (hu)
diréz-oxid (hu)
divara oksīds (lv)
