Room Temperature Synthesis of Copper Oxide Nanoparticles: Morphological Evaluation and Their Catalytic Applications for Degradation of Dyes and C–N Bond Formation Reaction

Abstract Synthesis of copper oxide (Cu 2 O and CuO) nanoparticles in different morphologies by a facile and cost effective method has been developed at room temperature. The effect of various copper precursors on the morphology of Cu 2 O nanoparticles has been addressed and achieved the 100 % uniform cubic morphology of Cu 2 O nanoparticles. The effect of different capping agents and bases also examined and selectively achieved rod, wire, belt like morphologies of CuO nanoparticles. The each capping agent plays the important role and responsible in building the morphology of copper oxide nanoparticles. Notably the synthesis procedure is simple, faster, economical and energy efficient as compared to the other existing methods with selectivity in morphology of copper oxide nanoparticles. In addition, we have shown the catalytic applications of synthesized Cu 2 O nanoparticles for the degradation of various dyes like methylene blue, methyl red and crystal violet and also as an efficient catalyst for C–N bond formation coupling reaction.