Radiation induced synthesis and characterization of copper nanoparticles

Capped copper nanoclusters were successfully synthesized by gamma radiolysi s method by optimizing various conditions like metal ion concentration, pol ymer or surfactant concentration and pH. The increasing amount of capping a gent was responsible for decrease in size as small as 17 nm of the metal cl usters. The radiolytic method provides copper nanoparticles in fully reduce d and highly pure state compared to other synthetic routes. Formation of co pper nanoclusters (FCC) was confirmed by X-ray diffraction technique. W-vis spectrophotometry was employed to examine changes in plasmon resonance abs orption peaks of copper metal. The purity of copper particles was further c onfirmed by electron spin resonance studies. Transmission electron microsco py results revealed the particle size distribution from 17 to 80 nm. Electr on diffraction pattern confirms FCC copper phase. The ro le of various para meters in the formation of stable copper clusters is discussed. (C) 1999 Ac ta Metallurgica Inc.