Simple one step electrochemical preparation of copper nanostructures

Nanostructures based on copper (CuNSs) are promising materials in different fields of application. To this end, in this work we have studied a simple one-step electrosynthesis of CuNSs directly onto ITO electrode surface starting from an aqueous solution of copper sulphate. We have investigated the effects of the presence of electrolyte salts such as K2SO4, Na2SO4 and (NH4)2SO4 and we have found that they gave rise to the formation of a number of remarkably different forms of nanostructures. In particular, when the electrodeposition was conducted in presence of K2SO4 fractal-like or dendritic structures consisting of a long central backbone and sharp side branches were observed. The resulting CuNSs were characterized by SEM, XRD and by electrochemical techniques. Studies on the electrocatalytic behaviour of dendritic CuNSs modified electrodes towards the oxidation of L-tyrosine in 0.05 M NaOH solution showed a 1.0 10−6 ÷ 7.0 10−5 M linear range and a detection limit of ca. 6.0 10−7 M.