Effect of Triethanolamine: Ethylenediamine Ratios on CuO Nanoparticles Prepared by Ultrasound Irradiation.

Low-dimensional nanoparticles of copper oxide (CuO) have attracted great attention because it is an important p-type semiconductor with stable narrow band gap energy (1.2 eV) [1]. It also has good photoconductive and photochemical properties, suitable for application such as gas sensors [2], solar cell [3] and catalysts [4]. Therefore, many methods have been developed to prepare CuO with various morphologies via template based sol-gel route [5], microwave-assisted synthesis [6], alcohothermal method [7], electrospinning method [8] and ultrasonic irradiation [9]. We chose the ultrasonic irradiation technique because it produces products with good homogeneity and optical properties. Karimi et al. carried out a novel sonochemistry route from copper acetate and sodium hydroxide in the presence of polyethylene glycol, polypropylene glycol and polyvinyl alcohol to control the dispersion and stabilization of CuO nanoparticles in the solution and look at the effects of mechanical and optical properties of the produced [10]. Similarly, in this study we controlled the growth of nuclei by employing the absorption of the triethanolamine (TEA) and ethylenediamine (EDA) onto the surface of the nanoparticles under ultrasonic irradiation conditions. TEA is an interesting ligand which is both a tertiary amine and a triol with a lone pair of electrons on the nitrogen atom [11]. It is widely used in cosmetology as a pH regulator and belongs to the group of tripodal ligands [12]. Meanwhile, EDA is a colorless liquid organic compound with an ammonia-like odor basic amine. It is attractive because these compounds are employed as intermediates for various fine chemicals [13]. We used EDA as a reducing and capping agent at the same time in this reaction. In this paper, we report the synthesis, structural characterization and optical properties of nanospheres CuO with the optimum ratio of TEA to EDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]