Synthesis and characterization of novel nanostructured fishbone-like Cu(OH)2 and CuO from Cu4SO4(OH)6

The Cu4SO4(OH)6 was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal reaction with a yield of ~ 90%. Using Cu4SO4(OH)6 as the starting material, novel fishbone-like Cu(OH)2 was produced by a direct reaction of Cu4SO4(OH)6 with NaOH solution. The Cu(OH)2 consists of many needle-like nanorods parallel to each other and perpendicular to the direction of backbone, forming fishbone-like structure. Using the fishbone-like Cu(OH)2 as the sacrificial precursor, CuO with similar size and morphology was obtained through a simple heat treatment. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, BET nitrogen adsorption, and UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy were employed to characterize the as-prepared samples. The conversion of the Cu4SO4(OH)6 to the fishbone-like Cu(OH)2 was visualized by time-dependent SEM images. A mechanism was also proposed based on the observed results.