Structural and Optical Properties of Copper Nanoparticles Synthesized via Wet Chemical Route.

Copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) have inherent optical and electronic properties and hence they find potential applications in the fields of printed electronic technologies, electronic device fabrication, sensors and conductive ink based electronic devices. Synthesis of pure Cu NPs through bottom up wet chemical route is a tough task because copper is highly prone to the surface oxidation and copper oxide is a very stable form at ambient conditions. In this work, crystalline metallic Cu NPs are synthesized in a one-step, eco-friendly route with L-ascorbic acid as both stabilizing and antioxidant agent and sodium borohydride as the reducing agent at the room temperature, without any inert atmosphere conditions. The structural properties of Cu NPs are studied using XRD, FTIR, FE-SEM etc. Optical properties of Cu NPs are probed through UV-Visible and fluorescent spectra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]