Seed-mediated growth and properties of copper nanoparticles, nanoparticle 1D arrays and nanorods

Copper nanorods were simply prepared by a method of seed-mediated growth in solution. In this method, poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) was used as a surface modified reagent as well as a soft template. By adjusting the concentration of copper ion and PVP and the refluxing time, the copper nanoparticles, copper 1D array nanoparticles wrapped in PVP and nanorods were obtained successively. Transmission electron microscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectrum and fluorescence spectroscopy were used to characterize the as prepared copper nanoparticles and nanorods. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectrum was carried out to investigate the microstructure. Obvious UV luminescence was observed for the copper nanorods. The mechanism of the growth process of copper nanomaterials was discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.