Kinetically controlled synthesis of hollow Cu2O nanocubes under solvothermal condition

Hollow Cu2O nanocubes have been fabricated under solvothermal condition using N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent at 120 degrees C for 12 h. The products were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Series of experiment confirmed that the amount of water, the reaction time and temperature played important roles in the morphology evolution of hollow Cu2O nanocubes. DMF is a relatively weak alkali solvent and could release a certain amount of OH- under the given conditions. As the release speed of OH- from DMF became substantially slow, the nucleation and growth Of Cu2O nanocubes turned into kinetically controlled process. (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim