Synthesis of copper oxide dots assembly on copper silicate nanorods and their optical limiting properties

A facile and simple strategy to construct a copper oxide dots assembly on copper silicate nanorod structures (CuO@Cu5(OH)2(SiO3)4) as a high performance optical limiter is reported. CuO nanoparticles with a high crystalline nature were homogenously decorated on the surface of Cu5(OH)2(SiO3)4. No other crystalline impurities were detected in the resulting nanostructure. The CuO@Cu5(OH)2(SiO3)4 nanostructure showed a sharp absorption peak at 265 nm and a broad weak band around 490 nm, correspond to the absorption of Cu5(OH)2(SiO3)4 and CuO nanoparticles, respectively. The optical limiting (OL) properties of the CuO@Cu5(OH)2(SiO3)4 nanostructure were investigated with a nanosecond open-aperture Z-scan technique at 532 nm. The results indicated better OL performance of CuO@Cu5(OH)2(SiO3)4 than benchmark carbon nanotubes and suggested that CuO@Cu5(OH)2(SiO3)4 is a good candidate for OL applications.