mickelcorleone - 3-5-2010 at 09:42
How we could synthesis and stabilized Cu2O
as you know Cu2O is Important material that could use in solar cells.
It's Bond Gap is 2.4 ev that is very good for visible light response.
this is very good challenge for chemists, that how we could synthesis nano Cu2O particles and stabilized
it from it's conversion to CuO.
Please share your Idea here with good supports.
Hamilton - 3-5-2010 at 11:10
i used to make it with simple cu(II) (like copper acetate) soluble salt and sodium ascorbate. The Cu2O precipitate is yellow to bright orange in
color. Unfortunately, this powder must be taken out of solution ASAP because the particle size seem to get larger and larger. In one night the bright
yellow precipitate turn to red brick if left in solution.
if the powder is pour on paper, it give a yellow color that doesn't change when dried.
not_important - 3-5-2010 at 12:33
The bulk oxide isn't very useful for the applications you refer to, it all happens at junctions between materials.
When I was a kid I read several science experiment books in which a photocell was made by heating copper sheet in air, knocking off the Cu(II) oxide,
and immersing the sheet in an alkaline electrolyte. Similarly they made copper oxide rectifiers were starting with heating copper sheet in air.
So far copper oxide photovoltaics haven't proven terribly useful, the best efficiency so far was with a Cu2O/ZnO cell that got a little above 2%.
There's been a lot of research on Cu2O, particularly as thin films:
Attachment: Electrical resistivity of copper oxide thin films.pdf (709kB)
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Attachment: Electrochromism in copper oxide thin films.pdf (259kB)
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Taoiseach - 4-5-2010 at 09:21
I wonder if it could be useful to reduce nitrate to nitrite... at least its insoluble and the oxidation product is too.