Facile synthesis of submicron Cu2O and CuO crystallites from a solid metallorganic molecular precursor

The mild preparation of submicron Cu2O and CuO crystallites from a solid metallorganic molecular precursor (copper acetylacetonate, Cu-(ACAC)2) has been achieved via two simple steps: firstly, the Cu-(ACAC)2 precursor was precipitated from the reaction of copper acetate and acetyl acetone in distilled water under the ambient condition; then, cubic phase Cu2O submicrocrystals with the size of mostly 80–260 nm could be produced by hydrothermal treatment of the Cu-(ACAC)2 in distilled water at 180 °C for 12 h, while monoclinic structure CuO submicrocrystals with the size of about 130–470 nm could be obtained by thermolysis of the Cu-(ACAC)2 in air at 300 °C for 5 h. The as-synthesized products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM).