Synthesis and characterization of monodisperse copper nanoparticles using gum acacia

A simple method was put forward in this paper for preparing colloidal copper nanoparticles in aqueous solutions using copper sulfate, gum acacia and hydrazine hydrate as copper precursor, capping agents and reducing agents, respectively, without any inert gas. The formation of nanosized copper was confirmed by its characteristic surface plasmon absorption peak at 604 nm in UV–vis spectra. The transmission electron microscopic (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show that the as-synthesized copper fine spherical particles are distributed uniformly with a narrow distribution from 3 nm to 9 nm. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscopic (HRTEM) demonstrated that the obtained metallic nanoparticles are single crystalline copper nanoparticles. Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopic data suggested that the copper nanoparticles are coated with gum acacia. The effects of the quantity of gum acacia on the particle size were investigated by the UV–vis spectra and TEM images. The growth process of the nanoparticles was monitored by the UV–vis spectra. The mechanism of the formation copper nanoparticles was discussed. The process raised in this study can be served as an excellent candidate for the preparation of copper nanoparticles in a large scale production.