Synthesis and characterization of CuO at nanoscale

CuO structures were synthesized by chemical precipitation method at nanoscale. The effects of different reactants including KOH + NH3·H2O, NH3·H2O + KOH, KOH or NaOH in addition to Cu(NO3)2·3H2O on the properties of CuO structures were investigated. Effects of different surfactants including zwitterionic 3-(N,N-dimethyldodecylammonio) propane-sulfonate (SB12), cationic cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) were also investigated. Synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectra, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) techniques. XRD and SEM results showed that the morphologies were significantly changed with respect to the reactant used. The significant effects of different surfactants on the structures were also observed from the experiments. The specific capacitances were changed according to the utilization of different reactants.