Room temperature facile synthesis of CuO nanostructures by resistive heating

•CuO porous layer and nanowires were grown by resistive heating of Cu wire.•The effects of the applied voltage values and of treatment time were investigated.•The nanowires have diameters of 90–300 nm and typical length in the range 1–5 µm.•The growth of nanowires is found to be based on the Cu ion diffusion.

CuO porous layer and nanowires were in situ grown on Cu wires by a very simple catalyst-free thermal oxidation process based on resistive heating of pure metal wires at ambient conditions. The morphological, compositional and structural characterization of the obtained samples revealed that the nanowires are monoclinic single and bi-crystalline structures with mean diameters of 90–300 nm and typical length in the range 1–5 μm. The effects of the applied voltage values and treatment time on the morphology of the metal substrate and on the size of the nanowires were investigated. Different from the vapor–solid (V–S) mechanism, the growth of nanowires is found to be based on the Cu ion diffusion.

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